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The Minnesota Timberwolves are a National
Basketball Association team based in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
Home arenas
- Hubert
H. Humphrey Metrodome (1989-1990)
- Target
Center (1990-present)
Franchise history
Early Ineptitude
The Timberwolves made their debut
on November
3, 1989
losing to the Seattle
SuperSonics on the road 106-94. Five days later
they would make their home debut at the Metrodome
losing to the Chicago
Bulls 96-84. Just two nights later the Wolves
would finally get their first win, beating the Philadelphia
76ers at home 125-118 on November 10th. The
Timberwolves, led by Tony
Campbell with 23.2 ppg, went on to a 22-60 record,
finishing in 6th place in the Midwest Division.
Playing in the cavernous Metrodome, the expansion
Timberwolves drew over 1 million fans including
the 3rd largest crowd in NBA
history at 49,551 on April 17, 1990 that saw the
Timberwolves lose to the Denver
Nuggets 99-88 in the final home game of the
season.
Jerome
"Pooh" Richardson in 1989
The next season the team moved into
the Target
Center and won 29 games. They fired their head
coach Bill
Musselman. Over the next several years, the
franchise encountered mediocrity and even a near
relocation in 1994
before NBA owners rejected the team's move to New
Orleans. Glen
Taylor bought the team and named Kevin
McHale general manager.
Building a Contender
In 1995, the Timberwolves selected
Kevin
Garnett in the draft, and Flip
Saunders became coach. Christian
Laettner was traded along with Sean
Rooks to the Atlanta
Hawks for Andrew
Lang and Spud
Webb. Also, first round pick Donyell
Marshall was traded the previous season for
Golden
State Warriors' forward Tom
Gugliotta, who was earlier traded himself from
Washington for Chris
Webber. These trades paved the way for rookie
Kevin Garnett to become the go-to player inside.
Garnett went on to average 10.4 ppg in his rookie
season as the T-Wolves finished in 5th place in
the Midwest Division, with a 26-56 record.
In 1996, the T-Wolves added another
star player in the draft, swapping Ray
Allen to the Milwaukee
Bucks for the rights to Stephon
Marbury, the 4th overall pick. The addition
of Marbury had a positive effect on the entire team,
as Kevin
Garnett and Tom
Gugliotta became the first Wolves to be selected
to the All-Star team. Gugliotta and Garnett led
the Timberwolves in scoring as the team made the
playoffs for the first time in franchise history
with a record of 40-42. However, in the playoffs
the Timberwolves made a quick exit as they were
swept by the Houston
Rockets in 3 straight games. The T-Wolves also
decided to change their image by changing their
team logo and colors, adding black to the team colors
and replacing the original logo with a logo featuring
a snarling wolf looming over a field of trees. While
at the time the new logo was roundly criticized
in the Twin Cities sports media, its appearance
accompanied a much improved product on the court,
so criticism was relatively short-lived.
In 1997
Kevin
Garnett and Stephon Marbury established themselves
as two of the brightest rising stars in the NBA.
Garnett averaged 18.5 ppg and 9.6 rebounds per game,
while Marbury averaged 17.7 ppg and dished out 8.6
assists per game. Despite losing leading scorer
Tom
Gugliotta for half the season the Timberwolves
went on to post their first winning season at 45-37
making the playoffs for the 2nd straight season.
After dropping Game 1 on the road to the Seattle
Supersonics in the playoffs the Timberwolves earned
their first postseason win in Game 2 winning in
Seattle 98-93. As the series shifted to Minnesota
the Timberwolves had an opportunity to pull off
the upset as they won Game 3 by a score of 98-90.
However, the Wolves dropped Game 4 at home as the
Sonics went on to win the series in 5 games.
In 1998,
a year after signing Kevin Garnett to an unprecedented
6-year, $126 million contract, the Timberwolves
were used as the poster child of irresponsible spending
as the NBA endured a 4-month lockout that wiped
out the season. With an already cap heavy payroll
the Wolves were forced to let Tom Gugliotta walk
away and trade Stephon Marbury fearing both would
seek deals similar to Garnett's. In the 3-team midseason
deal that sent Marbury to the New
Jersey Nets the Wolves got Terrell
Brandon in return. The Wolves made the playoffs
for the 3rd straight season by finishing in 4th
place with a 25-25 record. In the playoffs the Timberwolves
were beaten by the San
Antonio Spurs in 4 games.
In 1999,
the Timberwolves drafted Wally
Szczerbiak. He had a solid season finishing
3rd on the team in scoring with 11.6 ppg. Led by
Kevin Garnett, who averaged 22.9 ppg and 11.8 rebounds
per game, the Timberwolves enjoyed their first 50-win
season finishing in 3rd place with a solid record
of 50-32. However, in the playoffs the Wolves fell
in the first round again losing to the Portland
Trail Blazers in 4 games.
Guard Malik
Sealy was killed in a car accident in the summer
of 2000.
Also in that season, a free agent deal signed by
Joe
Smith was voided by the NBA, who ruled that
the Timberwolves violated proper procedure in signing
the contract. They stripped the T-Wolves of three
draft picks, fined them $3.5 million and suspended
general manager Kevin McHale for one year. (Smith
would eventually sign with the Detroit
Pistons before re-signing with the T-wolves
in 2001.) Despite the trouble the Wolves made the
playoffs for the 5th straight season with a 47-35
record. However, in the playoffs the Wolves were
eliminated in the first round again by the San
Antonio Spurs in 4 games in the spring of 2001.
2002-2003
seemed to look up for the Wolves. Kevin
Garnett had a great season, finishing 2nd in
MVP
voting while averaging a solid 23.0 ppg and 13.4
rebounds per game as the Timberwolves finish in
3rd place with a 51-31 record. With home court advantage
for the first time facing the three-time defending
champion Los
Angeles Lakers. After being blown out at home
in Game 1 the Timberwolves had a chance to take
a 3-1 series lead as they led heading into the 4th
quarter of Game 4 in Los Angeles. However, the Lakers
came back to win the game on the way to winning
the series in six games, as the Timberwolves were
eliminated in the first round for the 7th straight
year.
In 2003,
the Timberwolves made two stunning offseason moves,
trading away forward Joe Smith and injured guard
Terrell Brandon in a multi-player deal for Ervin
Johnson, Sam
Cassell and embattled guard Latrell
Sprewell.
During the 2003-04 NBA season, the
Timberwolves became the team everyone wanted to
beat. They finished as the season as the top seed
in the Western Conference with a record of 58-24,
and beat the Denver
Nuggets and Sacramento
Kings in the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs
before losing to the Lakers in the Western Conference
finals. Kevin Garnett finally earned his first MVP
award with 24.2 points per game and 13.9 rebounds
per game.
In the 2004-05 season, the Wolves
kept the same team from the previous season. The
team was plagued with contract disputes and the
complaining of key players Latrell
Sprewell, Sam
Cassell, and Troy
Hudson. Coach Flip
Saunders was replaced in midseason by GM Kevin
McHale, who took over the team for the rest
of the season. The Timberwolves finished 44-38,
and missed the playoffs for the first time in eight
years.
During the 2005 Offseason, Kevin
McHale and the Wolves started their search for
a head coach. McHale interviewed Seattle
assistant coach Dwane
Casey, San
Antonio Spurs assistant P.J.
Carlesimo, former coach John
Lucas and Wolves assistants Randy
Wittman, Sidney
Lowe and Jerry
Sichting, among others.
On June 17, 2005, the Timberwolves
hired Dwane
Casey as the new head coach. This will be Casey's
first head coaching job. He will be the Wolves'
7th head coach in their 16-year history.
In the 2005
Draft, the Timberwolves selected Rashad
McCants, a shooting guard from North
Carolina with the 14th overall pick of the 1st
round. The Timberwolves also selected Bracey
Wright, a guard from Indiana
with the 17th pick of the 2nd round (47th overall).
During the offseason, they traded
All-Star Sam
Cassell and a protected future first round draft
pick to the Los
Angeles Clippers for Marko
Jaric and Lionel
Chalmers. They also signed free agent Nikoloz
Tskitishvili.
On January 26, 2006 the Wolves traded
forward Wally Szczerbiak, centers Dwayne Jones and
Michael Olowokandi, and a future first-round draft
pick to the Boston
Celtics. In return they recieved forward/guard
Ricky
Davis, center Mark
Blount, forward Justin
Reed, guard Marcus
Banks, and two second round draft picks. In
a separate trade on the same day, the Timberwolves
traded Nikoloz
Tskitishvili to the Phoenix
Suns for a 2006 Second-Round Draft Pick. Television
broadcasters for the Minnesota Timberwolves are
Tom Hanneman and Jim Peterson. Chad Hartman is the
voice of the Wolves on radio station KFAN.
Players of note
None.
Other Notable players
Not to be Forgotten:
Retired numbers:
Current Roster:
External links
