Coach Sam Mitchell calls Greg Smith, newest Wolf, type of player worth looking at

Newly signed Timberwolves center Greg Smith stepped off a direct flight from the D League on Tuesday night, passed a physical exam Wednesday morning and made his NBA return that night against Washington at Target Center.

He's a much-needed healthy body for a team that briefly had two open roster spots after it waived Andre Miller and Kevin Martin before signing Smith on Wednesday afternoon.

He's also the kind of player — gifted, relatively young and with NBA experience — Wolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell says his team needs to evaluate with 21 games left in the season: candidates for training camp next fall ready to stay in the NBA.

Back from a knee injury two years ago, Smith is 25 and has played 131 career games with Houston and Dallas.

"We need to bring in some guys with some NBA experience who know how to play, who have been in the league two, three, four years," Mitchell said. "Some of those guys may have struggled those first couple years trying to find themselves. But we've got to do our homework and start finding guys who we can bring to camp with a chance to make our roster."

The Wolves have an open roster spot after waiving Martin but are uncertain about filling it. "We've talked about it," Mitchell said. "We're going to see what the budget is and if there is anyone out there."

Happy to be here

Smith played 18 games with Toronto's Raptors 905 D League team and declares his knee healthy and himself happy to be back in the NBA.

"Oh man, I'm so blessed right now to be here, with these guys, " said Smith, who played at Fresno State. "I feel like this 10-day [contract] here can let me showcase to them and other teams out there that I'm healthy and can contribute to a team."

First time back

Washington coach Randy Wittman returned to Target Center on Wednesday for the first time since his longtime friend and former boss Flip Saunders died in October.

"Each day we don't forget Flip and what he has meant to me," Wittman said. "Not a day goes by that I don't think about him. Coming in here since his passing, it's good to see his picture on the wall. He'll be remembered a long time."

Etc.

• Saunders was Wizards star John Wall's first NBA coach and Wall visited Saunders at his suburban Minneapolis home before his rookie season. "It's tough and devastating," Wall said. "I know the NBA still misses him, the whole city and state of Minnesota misses him and how much he meant to the game of basketball."

• Wolves forward Damjan Rudez was still talking Wednesday about Bruce Springsteen's concert Monday at Xcel Energy Center.