The 1995–96 Minnesota Timberwolves season was the seventh season for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association.
Season summary
Off-season This season was most memorable when the Timberwolves received the fifth overall pick in the 1995 NBA draft, and selected power forward, and high school basketball star Kevin Garnett. During the off-season, the team signed free agent All-Star guard Terry Porter, and re-signed former Timberwolves forward Sam Mitchell.
Regular season Despite the addition of Garnett, Porter and Mitchell, the Timberwolves got off to a bad start by losing nine of their first ten games of the regular season. After a 6–14 start to the season, head coach Bill Blair was fired and replaced with Flip Saunders, while Michael Williams was out for the remainder of the season due to a left heel injury after only just nine games. At mid-season, the team traded Christian Laettner, and Sean Rooks to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for Andrew Lang, and Spud Webb, and re-signed second-year guard Darrick Martin after a brief stint with the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies. After holding a 13–32 record at the All-Star break, the Timberwolves played around .500 in winning percentage by posting an 8–8 record in March. However, the team lost their final six games of the season, and finished in fifth place in the Midwest Division with a 26–56 record; the Timberwolves missed the NBA playoffs for the seventh consecutive year.
Isaiah Rider averaged 19.6 points per game and led the Timberwolves with 102 three-point field goals, while Tom Gugliotta averaged 16.2 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game, and Mitchell provided the team with 10.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. In addition, Garnett provided with 10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team, while Porter contributed 9.4 points and 5.5 assists per game, and Webb averaged 9.4 points and 5.9 assists per game in 26 games after the trade. Meanwhile, Lang averaged 8.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in 20 games, Martin provided with 7.3 points and 4.5 assists per game in 35 games, and Doug West contributed 6.4 points per game.
During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, Garnett was selected for the NBA Rookie Game, as a member of the Western Conference Rookie team; he also finished in sixth place in Rookie of the Year voting. The Timberwolves finished 26th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 585,669 at the Target Center during the regular season, which was the fourth-lowest in the league.
Aftermath Following the season, Rider, who dealt with off-the-court troubles, was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, while Lang was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, Martin signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Webb was released to free agency.
Offseason
NBA draft
Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 5 Kevin Garnett SF/PF 2 48 Mark Davis SG/SF Texas Tech 2 49 Jerome Allen PG Pennsylvania
Kevin Garnett In Garnett's rookie season, the Timberwolves were in the midst of a transition phase; they replaced Bill Blair with Flip Saunders as head coach early in the season and made several trades. Garnett initially came off the bench in his rookie year, but moved into the starting lineup soon after Saunders became head coach.
In his rookie year, Garnett and fellow newcomer Tom Gugliotta carried the scoring load. Garnett averaged 10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds, 1.8 assists, and 1.6 blocks per game and was voted into the NBA All-Rookie Second Team.
Despite having some promising players, the Timberwolves suffered through their seventh consecutive sub-30 win season and failed to make the playoffs. At the time Garnett was the youngest NBA player in history at 19 years and 11 months of age.
Roster
Regular season
Season standings
Game log
Player statistics
Ragular season PlayerPG82 40 2,072 212 452 89 15 773 25.3 2.6 5.5 1.1 .2 9.4SF 80 43 2,293 501 145 86 131 835 28.7 6.3 1.8 1.1 1.6 10.4PF 78 78 2,835 690 238 139 96 1,261 36.3 8.8 3.1 1.8 1.2 16.2SF 78 42 2,145 339 74 49 26 844 27.5 4.3 .9 .6 .3 10.8SG 75 68 2,594 309 213 48 23 1,470 34.6 4.1 2.8 .6 .3 19.6SG 73 16 1,639 161 119 30 17 465 22.5 2.2 1.6 .4 .2 6.4SF 57 0 571 125 47 40 22 188 10.0 2.2 .8 .7 .4 3.3PF 53 0 369 79 8 17 8 131 7.0 1.5 .2 .3 .2 2.5†C 49 7 902 204 38 19 28 331 18.4 4.2 .8 .4 .6 6.8†C 44 44 1,518 302 129 40 43 792 34.5 6.9 2.9 .9 1.0 18.0SG 41 0 362 25 49 21 5 108 8.8 .6 1.2 .5 .1 2.6†PG 35 16 747 44 156 26 2 254 21.3 1.3 4.5 .7 .1 7.3†PG 26 21 645 40 154 25 5 244 24.8 1.5 5.9 1.0 .2 9.4C 25 10 310 76 5 8 16 92 12.4 3.0 .2 .3 .6 3.7†C 20 18 550 121 3 7 41 175 27.5 6.1 .2 .4 2.1 8.8PG 9 7 189 23 31 5 3 55 21.0 2.6 3.4 .6 .3 6.1PG 8 0 39 5 6 1 0 6 4.9 .6 .8 .1 .0 .8
Awards and honors Kevin Garnett, NBA All-Rookie Second Team
References
Minnesota Timberwolves on Basketball Reference