Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are a professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, competing in the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Founded in 1989, the Timberwolves returned professional basketball to the state after a thirty-year hiatus, following the departure of the Minneapolis Lakers. While the Lakers achieved significant success, the Timberwolves have struggled historically, holding the lowest winning percentage among all current NBA franchises as of 2024.
The team has made eleven postseason appearances, but most ended in early exits, with a notable exception in the 2003-2004 season when they reached the Western Conference Finals. Key figures in the franchise's history include Kevin Garnett, the team’s all-time leader in points and rebounds, who is considered one of the greatest players to have played for the Timberwolves. Other notable players include Kevin Love, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Andrew Wiggins, who have contributed to the team's performance in various eras.
The Timberwolves play their home games at the Target Center, where they have undergone several logo redesigns reflecting the team's identity. Despite their challenging history, recent seasons have shown promise, with a resurgence led by a new generation of talent, including Towns and 2020 draft pick Anthony Edwards, hinting at a brighter future for the franchise.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Team information
- Inaugural season: 1989
- Home arena: Target Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Owner: Glen Taylor
- Team colors: Midnight blue, aurora green, lake blue, moonlight gray, and frost white
Overview
The Minnesota Timberwolves are a professional basketball team that plays in the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Western Conference. When the Timberwolves entered the league in 1989, it marked the NBA’s return to Minnesota for the first time in thirty years. The city of Minneapolis had been home to the league’s first dominant franchise—the Lakers—before the team moved west in 1960. The Timberwolves would not approach the level of success the Lakers had in Minnesota. In fact, the team established itself as one of the worst in the NBA in its first three decades of existence. As of 2024, Minnesota had the lowest winning percentage of any current NBA franchise. Of the Timberwolves’ eleven postseason appearances, they were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round ten times. The lone exception was the 2003–2004 season, when Minnesota finished with the best record in the Western Conference and made it all the way to the conference finals.
History
The first professional basketball team in Minnesota was the Minneapolis Lakers, who were formed as part of the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1947. A year later, the team moved to the rival Basketball Association of America (BAA) and won the first BAA title in 1949. After that season, the NBL and BAA merged to form the NBA, and Minneapolis won the first NBA title as well. In total, the Lakers would win five championships in Minneapolis before moving to Los Angeles after the 1959–1960 season. A few attempts were made to bring professional basketball back to Minnesota in the 1960s, but both were short-lived. The Minnesota Muskies arrived in 1967 as part of the American Basketball Association (ABA) but left for Florida after one season. The ABA’s Minnesota Pipers moved from Pittsburgh in 1968, only to move back the following season.
In the late 1980s, the NBA was looking to expand, prompting a group of Minnesota businesspeople to explore the possibility of bringing a team back to Minneapolis. Prior to the bidding process, the group organized a naming contest, with Timberwolves and Polars coming in with the most entries. Local officials from around the state were asked to vote for a final name, and Timberwolves was the runaway winner. In 1987, the group was awarded a franchise for $32.5 million, joining other expansion teams in Miami and Orlando in Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Timberwolves began play in 1989 in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, a large domed stadium built for the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings and Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Minnesota Twins. A season later, the team moved into its current home, the Target Center, an 18,800-seat arena in downtown Minneapolis. From the start, the Timberwolves’ logos have featured the franchise’s namesake canine. In 1996, the logo was redesigned with a vicious, snarling wolf set amid pine trees and the team’s name. The most recent redesign in 2017 reimagined the logo with a howling wolf set against a blue basketball with the team’s colors. Above the wolf’s head is a green star meant to symbolize the North Star.
The first draft pick in franchise history was guard Pooh Richardson from UCLA. Richardson had a moderately successful three-year stint with the Timberwolves until being traded away in 1992. Many of Minnesota’s draft picks in the team’s early years boasted similar resumes—putting up average numbers with the Timberwolves before leaving for other cities. The team’s performance on the court reflected this pattern, as Minnesota won no more than twenty-nine games and missed the playoffs each season from 1989 to 1996.
That began to change with the 1995 NBA Draft when Minnesota selected center/forward Kevin Garnett with the fifth overall pick. With Garnett on the floor, the Timberwolves made their first playoff appearance in 1997—albeit with a losing record—and returned to the postseason each year until 2004. The franchise had its first winning season in 1997–1998 and won fifty or more games four times in its playoffs run. However, despite slowly growing into a competitive team, Minnesota never made it out of the first round of the playoffs from 1997 to 2003.
The 2003–2004 season would prove different, as the Timberwolves established themselves as one of the best teams in the NBA. Minnesota won fifty-eight games—a franchise high—and earned home-court advantage in the Western Conference playoffs. The Timberwolves won the first playoff series in team history by beating the Denver Nuggets, then advanced to the Western Conference Finals by eliminating the Sacramento Kings. It was in the Kings’ series that point guard Sam Cassell injured his hip while doing a celebratory dance. With Cassell limited, the Timberwolves fell to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.
Minnesota finished above .500 in 2004–2005, but missed out on the playoffs. For the next twelve seasons, the Timberwolves finished with a losing record and out of postseason contention. Garnett’s tenure with Minnesota ended in 2007 when he was traded to the Boston Celtics. In 2008, the team drafted center Kevin Love, who had several productive years in Minnesota before being traded to Cleveland in 2014. One of the players acquired in the deal, forward/guard Andrew Wiggins, would become a key piece of a brief franchise resurgence in the late 2010s. With the first pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, the Timberwolves selected six-foot-eleven center Karl-Anthony Towns out of the University of Kentucky. Prior to the 2017–2018 season, Minnesota traded for All-Star Jimmy Butler from the Chicago Bulls. With Butler, Towns, and Wiggins, the Timberwolves finished 47–35 and made the playoffs for the first time since 2004. However, they lost in the first round to the Houston Rockets.
Unhappy at being traded to Minnesota, Butler demanded a trade elsewhere and was dealt to Philadelphia early in the 2018–2019 season. The franchise returned to its losing ways, finishing the season at 36–46. Wiggins was traded during the following season as the Timberwolves slipped even farther back in the standings. Since coming into the league in 1989, Minnesota has a .406 winning percentage, the lowest among all thirty NBA teams as of 2024. The next closest is the Los Angeles Clippers at .422.
However, the T-Wolves’ fortunes began to turn around in the 2020s. After winning the NBA Draft Lottery in 2020, Minnesota selected guard Anthony Edwards number one overall in that year's NBA Draft. Paired with Towns, the two players sparked Minnesota to playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023.
Notable players
The best player in franchise history is unquestionably Kevin Garnett, who played in Minnesota from 1995 to 2007 and again from 2014 to 2016. Garnett made ten All-Star appearances with the Timberwolves and five more after being traded to Boston. He was named 2003–2004 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) and holds every major team record. Among them are franchise highs in points scored with 19,201; rebounds with 10,718; assists with 4,216; and steals with 1,315. Garnett led the NBA in rebounds four times while with Minnesota, and his career mark of 14,662 rebounds is ninth on the all-time NBA list. Garnett retired in 2016 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020. He is the only player associated with the Timberwolves to have earned that honor as of 2020.
Some of Garnett’s teammates on the Timberwolves’ playoff teams of the late 1990s and early 2000s, included forward Tom Gugliotta, who made one All-Star team with Minnesota from 1995 to 1998. Forward Wally Szczerbiak also made one All-Star appearance in his tenure with the Timberwolves from 1999 to 2006. Veteran Latrell Sprewell was a member of the 2003–2004 Western Conference Finals team and retired with Minnesota in 2005. Sprewell was a four-time All-Star in a career that began in 1992 and spanned three teams. Sam Cassell played for the Timberwolves from 2003 to 2005 and made his only All-Star appearance with Minnesota.
Kevin Love made three All-Star appearances with Minnesota from 2008 to 2014. He led the NBA in rebounds in the 2010–2011 season and is second on the all-time franchise list as of 2020. Andrew Wiggins has the second-most career points in Timberwolves’ history with 8,710 and averaged 19.7 points per game in his time with the team. Jimmy Butler played just one full season with Minnesota but made one of his five career All-Star appearances with the team. Since being drafted in 2015, Karl-Anthony Towns has grown into a young star, making two All-Star games in that time. As of 2024, Towns has moved to second on the franchise scoring list with 13,100 points and second on the rebound list with 6,205.
Bibliography
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