Hardly a playmaker -- as his assist numbers attest -- Craig Smith is an emerging inside force for Minnesota. Darrell Walker/Icon SMI

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The second item on that rhino list relates to diet, an element of Smith's offseason regimen that got extra-special attention this year. Prone to excess poundage, Smith trained in double-time over the summer, hitting the weights hard enough to bench-press Kevin Durant while he's bench-pressing. He did Pilates and danced through some aerobics, while eating more healthfully. The result? Stonger and even sleeker than ever, still beefy but not at all blubbery.

Smith spent the weeks prior to this season in Minneapolis, practicing against Al Jefferson, the centerpiece of the Kevin Garnett trade and thus the franchise's new anchor. Lately he has been trying to adopt some of Jefferson's wicked up-fakes, while the two of them work on their overall consistency.

Then there's the thick skin, which means way more than merely coping with a twice-sprained ankle early in the season and a jammed wrist in the game against Washington. Smith has built a career out of doubters, dating back to his Boston College days, all those who figured him for a collegiate-sized big man at best.

He seemed destined to go the way of Byron Houston, Marcus Fizer and other NCAA strongmen who were undersized and overmatched trying to play a classic low-post game while spotting foes six or eight inches. But Smith's tenacity gives him a little bit of Barkley, a little more of Malik Rose, in getting as much out of his body -- inch for inch -- as any frontcourt player in the league.

Pound for pound, of course, the Rhino yields to no one.

Next year's rookie?

Some observers figured Seattle's Kevin Durant to be the favorite for Rookie of the Year even before Portland's Greg Oden underwent microfracture knee surgery. But it is possible that Durant and Oden both could win the rookie award.

To answer a question from reader Bengel Mendoza from Manila, yes, Oden, the No. 1 pick in June, can win it for the 2008-09 season if he doesn't enter a game at all this season. That's how the NBA eligibility rule for rookies works; it has nothing to do with minimum of games or minutes played the way, say, baseball works it.

NBA researchers say they are unaware of any player sitting out his entire first season with an injury, then winning the award in what should have been Year 2. The closest was David Robinson, who was selected first overall by San Antonio in 1987 and kept the Spurs waiting two seasons while fulfilling his military obligation to the Navy. In 1989-90, the Admiral finally came aboard and averaged 24.3 points and 12.0 rebounds to swipe the rookie honors from a 1989 class topped by Pervis Ellison, Danny Ferry, Sean Elliott and Glen Rice.

The league's best draw

Home attendance figures tell you a lot about a team's won-lost record, the star power of its lineup, the marketing skills of its business staff and the disposable income of local fans. Road attendance, in a non-scientific way, can tell you who some of the most (and least) popular NBA teams are.

Through Monday, Boston led the league with an average road attendance of 18,578. Denver was next at 18,415, followed by New Jersey (18,394), Dallas (18, 336) and the L.A. Lakers (18,041).

At the bottom, apparently judged by out-of-town fans as hardly compelling competition or just plain ol' unsexy, were Minnesota (15,072), Washington (15,190) and the L.A. Clippers (15,354). Scheduling, naturally, plays a role, so the sample size isn't the most reliable this early in the season. But Kevin Garnett went from the bottom to the top of more than just won-lost standings.

Steve Aschburner covered the Minnesota Timberwolves and the NBA for 13 seasons for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He has served as president or vice president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association since 2005.