Timberwolves
TimberwolvesMinnesota Timberwolves Betting Stats
The Minnesota Timberwolves have not had plenty of success since joining the NBA in 1989. This franchise has endured plenty of losing and has the worst winning percentage of all 30 teams as of 2022. Despite Kevin Garnett, the all-time Timberwolves’ team stats leader, Minnesota has made it past the first round of the playoffs just once.
Thanks to the franchise’s ineptitude, it is common to bet online against Minnesota via the NBA odds. This team will usually have underdog odds both on the outrights and the pre-game lines. However, things could change if the Wolves find a way to put it together, especially with promising young talent.
General Information
Conference & Division
- Founded: 1989
- Conference: Western
- Division: Northwest
City: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Stadium: Target Center
Championships & Titles
Years:
Division Title
Minnesota Timberwolves All-Time Records
Most points all-time:
- Kevin Garnett, 19,201
Most rebounds all-time:
- Kevin Garnett, 10,718
Most assists all-time:
- Kevin Garnett, 4,216
Most steals all-time:
- Kevin Garnett, 1,315
Most blocks all-time:
- Kevin Garnett, 1,590
Most wins all-time (coach):
- Flip Saunders, 427
Minnesota Timberwolves Stats & Team History
The Timberwolves became Minneapolis’s first NBA franchise since the Lakers in 1960. The Wolves struggled and won an average of 22 games in its first seven seasons. They finally got a break during the 1995 NBA Draft by selecting Kevin Garnett straight out of high school.
Nicknamed “The Big Ticket” or “The Franchise”, Garnett quickly became a superstar. He made his first of many All-Star appearances in his sophomore season and led, literally, all of the Minnesota Timberwolves team stats for most of his stay with the franchise.
However, as great as Garnett was, Minnesota could not win a playoff series. For seven straight years, Minnesota lost in the first round. Kevin McHale, the team’s executive, could not find a way to give the All-NBA talent sufficient support and had to shuffle between fringe All-Stars until the 2003-04 season.
McHale acquired Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell to push Minnesota to its best season: a franchise-best 58 wins. Garnett won his first and only MVP, and the Wolves -finally- won a playoff series. The team went all the way to the Conference Finals but lost to the Lakers.
The success was short-lived. The following season, injuries limited the Wolves to a 44-38 record. Flip Saunders, the Wolves’ longtime head coach, was fired midseason. Minnesota finished out of the NBA playoffs for the first time since Garnett’s rookie season.
The team continued to decline and Garnett was ultimately traded to Boston in 2007. He went on to win the NBA Championship in the subsequent season while Minnesota entered into a rebuild that would last over a decade.
Under David Kahn, who was appointed as the president of basketball operations in 2009, the Wolves made consistently-questionable moves. The Wolves had Kevin Love, who was a blossoming All-Star. But, as with Garnett, the team failed to build around him.
Most notoriously, the Wolves had two opportunities to select Stephen Curry during the 2009 NBA Draft but instead went with Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio.
Eventually, Minnesota traded Love to the Cavaliers for top pick Andrew Wiggins. The following season, the Wolves picked first to select Karl-Anthony Towns. And in 2018, under Tom Thibodeau and Jimmy Butler’s leadership, Minnesota returned to the playoffs for the first time in almost 15 years.
Since then, Minnesota moved on from Wiggins, Thibodeau, and Butler, but is continuing to build around Towns. They returned to the playoffs in 2022, and with new stars like Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert, the Wolves look to have their best run since Garnett’s MVP days.
