Minnesota Timberwolves: Ranking the Best Players by Position in Team History

Only three franchises in the NBA—the Memphis Grizzlies, Toronto Raptors and Charlotte Bobcats—are younger than the Minnesota Timberwolves, who came into the NBA in 1989-90 along with the Orlando Magic.

It was part of a two-year expansion by the NBA that also saw the addition of the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat in 1988-89. The Timberwolves marked the return of the NBA to the Twin Cities nearly three decades after the Minneapolis Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960. Minnesota did have a pair of one-year cameos in the American Basketball Association with the Minnesota Muskies (1967-68) and Minnesota Pipers (1968-69), but had gone 20 years without a team to call its own.

Local businessmen Harvey Ratner and Marv Wolfenson bought the rights to Minnesota’s expansion team, which was named “Timberwolves” as the result of a regional “Name the Team” contest that had fans choose between two finalists—Timberwolves or Polars.

Big man Rick Mahorn was Minnesota’s first choice in the expansion draft on June 15, 1989, fresh off back-to-back NBA titles with the Detroit Pistons. The club’s first draft choice was UCLA point guard Pooh Richardson, taken 10th overall.

The Timberwolves made the playoffs for the first time in 1997, in their eighth season—a year after drafting prep phenom Kevin Garnett.

That year began a record string of seven consecutive first-round playoff exits for Minnesota before the team finally broke through in 2003-04. That year, behind an MVP campaign by Garnett, the Timberwolves won a franchise-record 58 games and claimed the lone division title in franchise history, finishing one game ahead of the San Antonio Spurs in the Midwest Division.

The Timberwolves finally won a playoff series, beating the Denver Nuggets in five games in the first round, and followed it up by winning Game 7 at home over the Sacramento Kings in the conference semifinals. But the Los Angeles Lakers were too much in the Western Conference Finals, advancing to their fifth consecutive NBA Finals by beating Minnesota in six games.

That marked the franchise’s last playoff appearance, a drought that reached nine seasons in 2012-13.

So who are the best players by position in the history of the Minnesota Timberwolves?

NOTE: Players must have appeared in 250 regular-season games with the franchise to be considered for this list.

Wally Szczerbiak, shooting a free throw against the Milwaukee Bucks, was an All-Star for the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2002. (Flickr.com photo by SunFlowery)

Small Forward: Wally Szczerbiak (1999-2006)

Wally Szczerbiak earned second-team All-American honors in 1999, leading Miami (Ohio) to a shocking run to the Sweet 16, and was taken sixth overall by the Timberwolves in the 1999 NBA Draft.

Szczerbiak averaged 15.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game in 438 games over parts of seven seasons in Minnesota and earned a spot in the 2002 All-Star Game. He was part of the Wolves’ run to the conference finals in 2004, but came off the bench in the postseason after missing 53 games with a foot injury.

In January 2006, Szczerbiak was traded with Dwayne Jones, Michael Olowokandi and a 2009 first-round draft pick to the Boston Celtics for Marcus Banks, Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Justin Reed and second-round draft picks in 2006 and 2008.

Here is a nice Szczerbiak mixtape:

With 6,777 points, Szczerbiak is the third-leading scorer in franchise history. He ranks second with 343 3-pointers, fourth with 438 games and seventh with 1,190 assists and 1,932 rebounds. He is second in team history with a 40.4 percent mark from 3-point range, fifth in field-goal shooting at 50 percent and seventh in free-throw accuracy at 85.5 percent.

Apologies to: Sam Mitchell.

Kevin Garnett was the greatest Minnesota Timberwolf of them all. (Flickr.com photo by Keith Allison)

Power Forward: Kevin Garnett (1995-2007)

The greatest player in the history of the franchise, Kevin Garnett toiled 12 seasons in Minnesota, earning 10 All-Star Game bids and the Most Valuable Player award in 2003-04. Garnett earned All-NBA recognition eight times as a member of the Timberwolves, including three first-team nods, and was a eight-time member of the league’s All-Defensive team (he was first team six times).

Garnett led the NBA in rebounding four straight seasons (2003-04 through 2006-07) and posted the highest player efficiency rating (PER) in the league in both 2003-04 and 2004-05.

In his 12 seasons in Minnesota, Garnett averaged 20.5 points, 11.4 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. He is the franchise’s all-time leader in points (19,041), rebounds (10,542), assists (4,146), steals (1,282), blocked shots (1,576) and games (927). He is also the team’s all-time leader in minutes per game (38.3) and is second in scoring average (20.5), rebounding average (11.4) and blocked shots (1.7). His assists per game mark of 4.5 is 10th-best in franchise annals and with 1.4 steals per game, Garnett is sixth in team history. His 23.8 career PER is also Minnesota’s best-ever mark.

Here are Garnett’s top 10 plays as a Timberwolf:

In July 2007, the Timberwolves dealt away their greatest player ever, shipping Garnett to the Boston Celtics for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair and two first-round picks in 2009.

Apologies to: Kevin Love, Christian Laettner.

Center: Rasho Nesterovic (1998-2003)

Rasho Nesterovic is the best of a mediocre field of centers who have met the 250-game threshold for inclusion on this list. In five seasons in Minnesota, Nesterovic averaged 7.5 points and 5.4 rebounds per game and was fifth in the NBA in field-goal percentage at 52.5 in his final season as a Timberwolf in 2002-03.

Nesterovic ranks second in franchise history with 373 blocked shots and eighth with 1,711 rebounds. His 49.5 percent field-goal accuracy is seventh for the team as is his 1.2 blocks per game.

He was drafted 17th overall by the Timberwolves in the 1998 NBA Draft out of Slovenia and signed a free-agent deal with the San Antonio Spurs in July 2003.

Apologies to: Dean Garrett, Mark Madsen (No, really! Mark Madsen!)

Shooting Guard: Anthony Peeler (1998-2003)

The Timberwolves picked up Anthony Peeler in a trade with the Vancouver Grizzlies in February 1998 for Doug West and over the course of the next five-plus seasons, he went on to become the most prolific 3-point shooter in Minnesota history, canning 465 treys.

Peeler was primarily a reserve in his time with the Timberwolves averaging 9.6 points per game for the team.

He ranks seventh all-time for Minnesota with 373 steals and is ninth with 1,000 assists. His 37.9 percent mark from 3-point range is the fifth-best in club history.

Peeler’s career is highlighted in this video, with the Minnesota portion beginning at about the 1:03 mark:

In June 2003, Peeler was traded with Joe Smith to the Milwaukee Bucks for Sam Cassell and Ervin Johnson, but the Bucks released him just 10 days later. He wound up playing the next season with the Sacramento Kings, leading the NBA with a 48.2 percent mark from 3-point land.

Apologies to: Doug West, Trenton Hassell.

Point Guard: Troy Hudson (2002-07)

No position was more greatly affected by the 250-game threshold than this one. More prestigious point guards such as Sam Cassell, Stephon Marbury and Chauncey Billups, as well as present-day Timberwolves Luke Ridnour and Ricky Rubio, didn’t qualify.

In fact, Hudson was the only point guard in Timberwolves’ history who has played at least 250 games. So it made the choice simple, if not overly high in quality.

Hudson signed with Minnesota as a free agent in August 2002 and spent most of his career with the Wolves as a reserve after starting 74 games in his first season with the club in 2002-03.

That was his most productive year with the Timberwolves, as he averaged a career-high 14.2 points and 5.7 assists while playing a career-best 32.9 minutes a night. He was fourth in the league that season, shooting 90 percent from the free-throw line.

Hudson averaged 10 points and 3.8 assists per game over his five years in Minnesota. His 285 3-point field goals are the fourth-most in club history and his 984 assists place him 10th. His 86.5 percent free-throw accuracy is sixth in franchise history.

This Hudson mixtape gets to his days in Minnesota at about the 2:18 mark:

Hudson was released by the Timberwolves in August 2007 and signed with the Golden State Warriors in September of that year. The Warriors waived him in January 2008, ending his NBA career.

Apologies to: Well, no one actually.