For many Timberwolves fan, the series sweep against the Phoenix Suns was as significant moment as any. Then watching the Wolves come from 20 points down in the 3rd quarter to win against the defending champion Denver Nuggets, on the road, in Game 7 was momentous. It is rare to see Minnesota sports see such success in the playoffs, we do have the longest championship drought of any other major city/ state with all four major sports. 

There are also Wolves fans who are, rightfully so, fair weathered. It has been 20 years since the Timberwolves have won a series. It’s hard to be interested in a team that is not good for that long. For those of us who remember when we made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2004 and have remained engaged since, we have been through a lot. 

I have spent many hours on internet forums (yes, these were a thing) defending ridiculous front office decisions, remaining hopelessly optimistic. Optimistic that every draft, our lottery pick would translate to what Anthony Edwards is today. That we would be lucky enough to make the ‘steal’ selection in the draft. That we would make the blockbuster trade to change the trajectory of our franchise.

That is why I wrote this brief history of what this franchise has been through for the last 20 years. I will break it down into eras, because 20 years is a long time. 

1. The Downfall Garnett Era (2004-2007):

   – Notable Draft Picks:

     – 2004: Ndudi Ebi (26th overall)

     – 2005: Rashad McCants (14th overall), Bracey Wright (47th overall)

     – 2006: Brandon Roy (6th overall, traded to Portland), Craig Smith (36th overall)

     – 2007: Corey Brewer (7th overall), Chris Richard (41st overall)

This era was meant to be a reload around Kevin Garnett after the Wolves made it to the Western Conference Finals in 2004. We were meant to develop the likes of Ndudi Ebi as a project straight out of High School. The Wolves would trade Sam Cassell to the Clippers for a younger, taller Marco Jaric. Latrell Sprewell would not resign because we didn’t offer enough to feed his kids. They also brought in players like Ricky Davis to potentially be the Robin for Kevin Garnett, but that never worked. There was hope that players like Rashad McCants or Randy Foye (who the Wolves acquired on draft night for Brandon Roy) would develop fast enough to help KG, but there just wasn’t enough there. 

Garnett’s championship clock was running out and the Wolves simply didn’t have the resources to build around him. This era would end by sending Kevin Garnett to the Celtics in 2007 for Al Jefferson and a bunch of role players with potential they’d never meet. Of course Garnett would go on to win a championship with the Celtics after they built the first real super team. 

2. Post-Garnett Rebuilding (KAAAHHHHHN!) (2007-2013):

   – Notable Draft Picks:

     – 2008: Kevin Love (5th overall), Nikola Pekovic (31st overall)

     – 2009: Ricky Rubio (5th overall), Jonny Flynn (6th overall), Ty Lawson (traded to Denver, 18th overall), Wayne Ellington (28th overall), Henk Norel (47th overall)

     – 2010: Wesley Johnson (4th overall), Luke Babbitt (traded to Portland, 16th overall)

     – 2011: Derrick Williams (2nd overall), Donatas Motiejunas (traded to Houston, 20th overall)

     – 2012: No first-round pick, Robbie Hummel (58th overall)

     – 2013: Shabazz Muhammad (14th overall), Gorgui Dieng (21st overall)

Post-Garnett was meant to be a quick cycle rebuild around Al Jefferson. Jefferson would develop into a solid low post scorer but lacked quite a bit on the Defensive side. The Wolves also brought in Kevin Love who would develop nicely alongside Nikola Pekovic from the 2008 draft. The Wolves liked Love and Pekovic a bit more than Jefferson, so he was sent to Utah. 

While Ricky Rubio was drafted in 2009 and would go on to be a fan favorite until this day, that draft would be known as the draft in which David Kahn passed on the best shooter in NBA History, twice. What made matters worse is that the Wolves took two point guards, the same position as Steph Curry. David Kahn would go on to miss on multiple drafts in 2010 (missed out on DeMarcus Cousins, Paul George), 2011 (Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler) and not having a draft pick in 2012. 

Still, the Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio duo would bring a slight amount of excitement back to the Target Center. That was until Ricky Rubio would tear his ACL and Kevin Love broke his hand doing ‘Knuckle Pushups’. Had those two injuries not occured, the Timberwolves would have potentially broken the Playoff-less streak they were on. Unfortunately though, this second rebuild would be a fail in this era. 

David Kahn would set the Timberwolves franchise back several years before Flip Saunders would make his return after a decade away. Until this day, many Timberwolves fans that followed the team in this era suffer PTSD from David Kahn. It is incredible that the drafts that David Kahn missed on still haunt the Timberwolves until this day being that many of the players that the Wolves missed out on are still the best players on several teams across the league while the players the Wolves selected are no longer in the league. Flip Saunders would begin to turn things positive 

3. Wiggins-KAT Era (2014-2016):

   – Notable Draft Picks:

     – 2014: Andrew Wiggins (1st overall, acquired in Kevin Love trade), Zach LaVine (13th overall), Glenn Robinson III (40th overall)

     – 2015: Karl-Anthony Towns (1st overall), Tyus Jones (24th overall)

This is a shorter era but a lot happened. The Wolves would eventually trade Kevin Love for Andrew Wiggins. Zach LaVine was also an amazing draft pick by Flip where he would develop into an amazing offensive player and become a two-time Slam Dunk Contest winner. The Wolves would then be awarded their first ever number 1 pick in Karl-Anthony Towns. To add to all of this, Flip Saunders would bring Kevin Garnett back in a mid-season trade to finish out his career in Minnesota. 

Then of course, there was the tragic loss of Flip Saunders. It is unclear how the Wolves would be today had Flip not passed, but it was certainly trending upward. Given the momentum the Wolves were heading towards and the young talent on the roster, Glen Taylor would hire Tom Thibodeau as Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations. 

4. TimberBulls Era (2016-2019):

   – Notable Draft Picks:

     – 2016 Kris Dunn (5th Overall)

     – 2017: Justin Patton (16th overall)

     – 2018: Josh Okogie (20th overall), Keita Bates-Diop (48th overall)

     – 2019: Jarrett Culver (6th overall), Jaylen Nowell (43rd overall), Naz Reid (undrafted, signed as free agent)

The Thibs hire was huge for the Minnesota Timberwolves as a coach of that caliber generally would not want to come to Minnesota. But the amount of talent the Wolves had between Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, and Karl-Anthony Towns was undeniable. Of course in hindsight, Thibs was not ready to be the President of Basketball Operations. First, his draft picks unfortunately were all misses in 2016 and 2017. Although some redemption, Kris Dunn was traded as a part of the package with Zach LaVine to acquire Jimmy Butler. 

The Wolves would then build the ‘TimberBulls’ with the likes of adding players like Taj Gibson and Derrick Rose around Jimmy Butler. The team would make the playoffs and make a first-round exit. This was the end of the wolves 12 year playoff drought. Unfortunately though, Jimmy Butler would implode and demand a trade as he is known to do. That implosion would lead to the Wolves being awarded another #1 pick in 2020 at the end of this dramatic era. 

5. Anthony Edwards Era (2020 – present)

     – 2020: Anthony Edwards (1st overall), Leandro Bolmaro (23rd overall), Jaden McDaniels (28th overall)

     – 2021: no draft picks

     – 2022: Wendell Moore Jr (26th overall), Josh Minot. (45th overall)

     – 2023: Leonard Miller (33rd overall), Jaylen Clark (53rd Overall)

The Wolves success in this era has to be awarded slightly to Gerson Rosas. He selected Anthony Edwards in 2020 in a draft where they could’ve potentially moved down or made a different selection as the draft class looked weak. Then to get Jaden McDaniels in the same draft is unbelievable. Rosas then went against Glen Taylor to let go of Ryan Saunders and to hand pick Chris Finch. Rosas also managed to get a decent value in trade for Andrew Wiggins, who looked untradeable for a long time. 

After Rosas was fired for misconduct, Tim Connely put the finishing touches on the roster acquiring Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley in dramatic fashion. The rest is history, sort of. The season is not over, so history really depends on the outcome of the rest of the 2024 Playoffs.

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All in all, I aimed that this brief and abbreviated history could provide new Wolves fans, or Wolves fans just not old enough to remember what it was like in 2004, a feel for the dramatic downturn and multiple iterations of rebuilds that occurred. 

Here is to a Championship run we will all remember. Wolves Back. Yesssirrrrskiiii