Since the Minnesota Timberwolves entered the NBA in 1989, their drafts and have been full of surprises. Some pleasant, and some unpleasant.
The Minnesota Timberwolves have a long history of drafting in the top ten, doing so 19 times and counting in their 28-year existence.
The high draft picks haven’t exactly boded well for the Timberwolves.
Minnesota has the worst win percentage of any franchise in NBA history. They also have zero conference championships and NBA championships to go along with it.
The Timberwolves can, however, claim one division title. That came back in 2003-04, the best season in franchise history.
Some of the players the Timberwolves have drafted have been franchise-altering players, one way or another, but for the most part, they are players who developed solid careers in the NBA.
Even outside of the selections made in the top 10, the Timberwolves, like any franchise, have had a varying degree of luck. Some of those players turned out to be All-Stars while some turned out to be duds.
As the Timberwolves discovered in 1995, and hopefully re-discovered 20 years later, drafting the right player can change the course of history.
It can drastically change the way your team is viewed in the league and whether other players want to come play for your franchise.
All of the players on this list were selected by the Timberwolves and played in at least one game for the Wolves in the season they were drafted.
It doesn’t include those players who were selected by other teams and subsequently traded to Minnesota.
*All information and statistics were obtained from basketball-reference.com unless noted otherwise.
20. Howard Eisley
Howard Eisley starts our countdown but not for what he accomplished as a Minnesota Timberwolf.
After Eisley was selected with the third pick of the 1994 NBA draft’s second-round, he only lasted half a year in a Minnesota Timberwolves’ uniform.
After averaging 3.3 points and 2.3 assists in 34 games, the Timberwolves waived him on Feb 13, 1995.
Despite that, Eisley would go on to have a respectable NBA career, playing for eight teams in 12 seasons.
Perhaps his best season came in 2002-03 as a member of the New York Knicks. He finished with a career-high 9.1 points and 5.4 assists per game that season.
Eisley also cracked the top ten in assist percentage that year with 31.4 percent.
Eisley’s claim to fame may come from his pair of appearances in the NBA finals with the Utah Jazz. He was John Stockton‘s main backup and was a key contributor off the bench.
Howard Eisley’s best moment that never happened occurred in Game 6 of the 1998 NBA finals. You may already know this game as Michael Jordan‘s “The Shot.”
However, a crucial event happened in the first half that would set the stage for Jordan’s shot.
Eisley made a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the second quarter. It appears that he clearly got the shot off in time before the end of the half.
However, the referee ruled that he did not get the shot off and the 3-pointer did not count.
This was critical because Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls eventually won 87-86 on Jordan’s big shot. One that may have never happened had there been instant replay in 1998.
19. Felton Spencer
Felton Spencer, a seven-foot center, was selected by the Timberwolves with the sixth pick in the 1990 NBA draft.
He was drafted out of Louisville, where he had three quiet seasons before vastly improving his game going into his final year in college. During his senior year, Spencer blossomed and averaged 14.9 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
Spencer played 12 seasons in the NBA but only three of them with Minnesota. He was best known for his hustle and ability on the boards.
During those three seasons, he averaged six points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game.
In his rookie year, he ranked seventh in the NBA in offensive rebounds with 272 and fifth in offensive rebounding percent at 14.1 percent. That season he also grabbed 17.1 percent of total rebounds that were available which ranked 10th in the NBA.
On his way to cleaning up the glass, Spencer picked up a ton of fouls. He ranked second in the NBA in fouls during his rookie year, racking up 337.
Spencer’s great rebounding numbers allowed him to land a spot on the 1990-91 All-Rookie Second Team.
His rookie year turned out to be the best year of his Timberwolves’ career. His points and rebounds declined each of his next two seasons in Minnesota before Spencer was eventually traded.
During the summer of 1993, Spencer was traded to the Utah Jazz.
He had what might be the finest year of his career during his second season in Utah as he averaged a career-high 9.3 points to go along with 7.6 rebounds.
Spencer spent three seasons in Utah, before finishing his career playing for four teams in six years.
18. Craig Smith
Craig Smith, also known as The Rhino or The Cookie Monster, was a nice get for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 2006 NBA draft.
He was selected out of Boston College with the sixth pick in the second-round and ended up being a sneaky steal for the Timberwolves.
Smith had an excellent career at Boston College and finished second on their all-time scoring list with 2,349 points.
Although Smith’s career wasn’t as long as the two players behind him on this list, his impact was greater in a shorter period of time.
He played three seasons with the Timberwolves, averaging 8.9 points and 4.5 rebounds.
He ultimately earned the nickname “The Rhino” because of his muscular build. At 6 feet 7 inches tall and 250 pounds, Smith was not to be reckoned with on the court.
Craig Smith earned rookie honors in 2006-07 when he made the All-Rookie Second Team after averaging 7.4 points and 5.1 rebounds.
He carried his strong rookie performance into the Las Vegas summer league. There he averaged 21.8 points and six rebounds per game.
Smith’s best scoring year of his career came during his third season in the league when he averaged 10.1 points per game.
This ultimately increased his value on the trade market and led to the Timberwolves shipping him off in the summer to acquire Quintin Richardson.
Smith would only last three more seasons in the NBA, playing two of them with the Los Angeles Clippers.
He finished his career with the Portland Trail Blazers playing very sporadically.
17. Rashad McCants
When Rashad McCants was drafted with the 14th overall selection in the 2005 NBA draft, he had a very bright future ahead of him.
Unfortunately, McCants was never able to live up to that future due to injuries and a scandal at North Carolina, where he attended college.
Nine years after helping North Carolina to a NCAA championship, McCants reported that he took phony classes at the University and had tutors write his classwork for him. Even though it is refuted by the rest of his teammates and the University itself, it still stands as a monumental question mark.
However, during his time at North Carolina, McCants was a vital piece to their championship team.
That team, which was full of future NBAers including Marvin Williams, Sean May and Raymond Felton, looked to McCants to carry the scoring load.
He played three and a half seasons in Minnesota, averaging 9.9 points on 36.9 percent shooting from behind the arc.
McCants best year came in 2007-08 when he averaged 14.9 points per game while shooting over 40 percent from the 3-point line.
Throughout McCant’s short career in the NBA, he briefly demonstrated the scoring ability he was known for at UNC. Even though he was never fully able to show it off the spark was certainly there.
McCants was traded to the Sacramento Kings in the middle of the 2009 season.
The Kings released him a little less than a year later and he never played in the NBA again.
16. Wayne Ellington
Wayne Ellington is the second consecutive University of North Carolina product to make this prestigious Timberwolves’ list.
Ellington was drafted in 2009 with the 28th overall pick and has played for seven NBA franchises in eight seasons, three of them with the Timberwolves.
He’s an undersized shooting guard who is a legitimate threat from the 3-point line.
Ellington was a solid addition off the bench for the Timberwolves, making only 13 starts in his Timberwolves’ career.
He averaged 6.5 points on 37.6 percent shooting from downtown throughout those three seasons in Minnesota.
Ellington is currently playing in the NBA with the Miami Heat, where he averaged a career-high 10.5 points per game this past season.
Since the Minnesota Timberwolves first traded Ellington in 2012, he has been traded four times and is on his sixth team in five years.
Although, he now appears to be finding his groove as a player in the NBA and is just hitting his stride.
As long as he is able to continue knocking down shots from the outside, Ellington should remain in the NBA for a few more years. Giving him ample opportunity to climb this list.
15. Derrick Williams
Derrick Williams may go down in Timberwolves’ history as a bust, especially given some of the players that were drafted after him, but that doesn’t stop D-Will from coming in at number 15 on our list.
Williams’ amazing NCAA tournament run in 2011 vaulted him to the top of Minnesota’s board, resulting in him being selected with the second overall pick in that year’s NBA draft.
In those three seasons, Williams averaged 10.1 points and 4.9 rebounds. He was very one dimensional as he never averaged more than one assist, steal, or block per game during his stint with the Timberwolves.
In what is very likely to be the highlight of his Timberwolves’ career, Williams was lucky enough to participate in the 2012 Rising Stars Challenge as well as the Slam Dunk contest.
Another of Williams’ highlights with the Wolves occurred on Mar 17, 2013. On that day he scored his Timberwolves’ career high of 28 points.
Despite ample playing time, Derrick Williams wasn’t able to prove that he could become the consistent scorer in the NBA that he was at Arizona.
Williams only played three seasons in Minnesota before they traded him early in the 2013 season to the Sacramento Kings.
Williams has bounced around to more than a few teams since then, never being able to find a stable home.
He is currently playing for the Cleveland Cavaliers, the fourth team in four years for Williams.
In the end, it was his inability to live up to the hype that led to Williams being shipped away in 2013.
He had a lot of potential to be a big-time scorer coming out of college but unfortunately for Williams and the Timberwolves, that never came to fruition.
14. Doug West
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ inaugural 1989 draft turned out to be a stellar one for the team as two of the players they drafted that year made this list.
The third player drafted by the Wolves, Doug West, was selected by the Timberwolves with the 11th pick in the second-round.
West, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, played 12 seasons in the NBA, nine of them with Minnesota.
He was best known for his athleticism and defensive ability.
In 1991-92, Doug West also participated in the slam dunk competition, showing off his amazing athleticism.
West is fifth on the Timberwolves’ all-time steals list having racked up 428 total steals in his nine seasons.
He started out his career slowly, starting only one game in his first two NBA seasons.
He then made a significant leap going into his third season as he moved into the starting lineup and began to prove his worth to the franchise.
West averaged in double-digits four years in a row, beginning with the 1991-92 season, including a career-high 19.3 points per game in 1992-93.
That scoring spree vaulted West to the top of the Timberwolves all-time scoring list in 1995, where he now sits fifth on the list.
After the 1997-98 season West was traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies for Anthony Peeler. He finished the last three seasons of his career riding the bench in Vancouver.
13. Zach LaVine
Zach LaVine is the first active Minnesota Timberwolf to make an appearance on the list.
He was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 NBA draft and has literally jumped onto the NBA scene.
During his rookie year, he averaged 10.1 points to go along with 3.6 assists per game, earning him a spot on the All-Rookie Second Team.
LaVine’s amazing athleticism has led to some classic moments for the UCLA product as he won back-to-back Slam Dunk Contests in 2015 and 2016.
His numbers have improved steadily throughout the first three years of his career as well.
Part of this was due to a position change.
After the Timberwolves initially tried to insert LaVine at point guard, they soon found out that his skills best translate to the shooting guard position.
After averaging 10.1 points his rookie year, he jumped to 14 points his sophomore year, and all the way up to 18.9 points this past season.
That position change may have been what sparked LaVine’s increased production in the scoring department.
He has also improved his outside shot, knocking down 38.7 percent of 3-pointers on 6.6 attempts this past season.
When LaVine tore his ACL halfway through this past season, the wind appeared to be let out of the Timberwolves’ sails.
In the blink of an eye, LaVine’s incredibly bright future suddenly seemed gloomier.
How he responds and recovers from his ACL injury will determine just how high on this list he can climb. He’s already reached this level in three short years.
12. Luc Longley
Luc Longley is best known for his days with the Chicago Bulls, but the Australian native was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the seventh overall selection in the 1991 NBA draft.
He attended college at the University of New Mexico where he put up some terrific numbers throughout his four years there. He averaged over 18 points and nine rebounds both his Junior and Senior seasons.
Unfortunately, Longley didn’t get off to a great start endearing himself to Timberwolves’ fans. He actually missed the first month of his rookie year due to not being able to come to a contract agreement with the franchise.
In Longley’s two and a half seasons in Minnesota, he averaged 5.4 points and 4.7 rebounds per game, a big turn from his college days.
In February of 1994, Longley was traded to the Chicago Bulls along with a second-round pick in exchange for Stacey King.
During Longley’s time in Chicago, he won three straight championships from 1996-1998 and became the first ever Australian-born player to win an NBA title.
Longevity was an area of concern for the big man as he never played all 82 games in a season and only played more than 63 games on two occasions.
At 7 feet 2 inches tall, Longley was expected to make an impact on the boards. However, he never dominated the glass like he did in college, averaging only 4.9 rebounds per game throughout his career.
Perhaps, Longley’s best season came during the 1997-98 season, the last of the Bulls’ three-peat of championships.
That year, Longley averaged 11.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Longley was traded the subsequent year to the Phoenix Suns in a sign and trade agreement for three players and a first-round pick.
He finished his career with the New York Knicks, appearing in only 25 games during the 2000-01 season.
11. Corey Brewer
Corey Brewer has had a solid NBA career, mostly making a name for himself on the defensive end of the floor.
He has done a great job of using his 6 foot 9 inch frame to allow him to rack up steals on steals on steals.
In 2013-14, Brewer finished fourth in the NBA with 151 total steals.
He has finished in the top 10 of the NBA in steals percentage on four different occasions. That has propelled him to be ranked seventh amongst active NBA players with a steals percentage of 2.7 percent.
After being drafted with the seventh overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, Brewer has had two stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
He played the first three and a half years of his career in Minnesota before being traded to the New York Knicks.
Two years later he returned to the Timberwolves when he signed a three-year $15 million deal, where he had the best game of his career.
Brewer has never been able to find his 3-point stroke but that hasn’t stopped him from putting up some big games.
He had the game of his life on April 11, 2014. Brewer dropped a career-high 51 points on the Houston Rockets, a team who would trade for him eight months later.
He also tallied six steals and joined an exclusive club alongside Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, and Ricky Barry as the only players to ever record 50 or more points and six or more steals in a single game.
10. Radoslav Nesterovic
Rasho Nesterovic is continuing the trend of players on this list who didn’t spend very much time in Minnesota after being drafted by the team.
Nesterovic was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the 17th overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft and only played five seasons in Minnesota.
Even though he was drafted in 1998, Nesterovic didn’t join the Wolves until two games remained in that season.
Due to the late start, Nesterovic was still under team control for four more seasons after 1998.
The seven-footer did most of his damage down low, where he often controlled the paint. Nesterovic finished his NBA career averaging 1.2 blocks per game, a lot of those games coming with limited minutes.
Although he wasn’t much of a scorer, Nesterovic did average a career high 11.2 points per game during his final season with the Timberwolves in 2002-03.
He used that season to earn himself a six-year deal with the San Antonio Spurs. Even though the Minnesota Timberwolves offered him more money, he wanted a chance to win a championship in San Antonio.
Nesterovic’s plan paid off as he won a title in his second year with the Spurs. He was the starting center on the team and helped anchor their defense by averaging 1.6 blocks per game during his three seasons in San Antonio.
Nesterovic was best known for his offensive rebounding ability as well as his defense.
Timberwolves’ fans may not have very fond memories of Rasho but he deserves to be on this list.
9. Jerome “Pooh” Richardson
Jerome Richardson made history when he was selected as the first pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ franchise with the 10th overall pick in the 1989 draft.
He is known as “Pooh” because his grandmother thought he resembled Winnie the Pooh.
Although Richardson only played three seasons in Minnesota, he had a successful NBA career altogether.
Richardson averaged 15 points and eight assists per game during his time with Minnesota, where he played the best basketball of his career.
He was named to the All-Rookie First Team for the 1989-90 season and continued to build off his rookie performance.
During Richardson’s very next year, he averaged 17.1 points and nine assists per game, both career highs.
After Richardson’s third year with the Timberwolves, where he never missed a game, they shipped him off to the Indiana Pacers.
He would go on to play seven more seasons in the NBA, but his best years were already behind him.
All throughout his career, he was a great passer.
His great passing began at UCLA where he started all four seasons and left school holding UCLA records for most assists in a career and in a season.
After cracking the top 10 in assists per game on three separate occasions, he ranks 37th in NBA history in assists per game with 6.5. Richardson is also currently ranked 100th all-time in the NBA with 4180 assists. That number would be a lot higher if it weren’t for his final three seasons in the NBA where his production dropped off dramatically.
Richardson is also currently ranked 100th all-time in the NBA with 4180 assists. That number would be a lot higher if it weren’t for his final three seasons in the NBA where his production dropped off dramatically.
Richardson was also known for his quick hands and ability to steal the ball from the opposing players. He finished his career averaging 1.3 steals per game.
8. Nikola Pekovic
Nikola Pekovic turned out to be a major steal for the Timberwolves when he was selected with the first pick of the 2008 NBA Draft’s second round.
Pekovic could have gone much higher in the draft but slid to the second round because he had just signed a new contract with his Euroleague team prior to the 2008 draft.
That made him practically a lock to be selected with the first pick of the second round due to the Timberwolves being able to pay him more money than a first-rounder when he finally did decide to come over seas to the NBA.
Two years after he was drafted, he signed a three-year $15 million deal with the Minnesota Timberwolves and made his NBA debut in 2010.
Pekovic’s rookie year wasn’t stellar as he only averaged 5.5 points and three rebounds per game.
He soon figured it out though and increased his scoring average each of the next three seasons, maxing out at 17.5 points per game during the 2013-14 season.
That season, Pekovic finished third in the voting for the Most Improved Player award.
Two years later he was rewarded with a five-year, $60 million deal.
Unfortunately, the contract has turned out to be a waste of money for the Timberwolves, as Pekovic has missed a lot of time due to injury.
He initially injured his ankle during the 2013-14 season and hasn’t been able to fully recover since.
He has only played in 43 total games over the last three seasons. That includes missing the entire 2016-17 year.
Pekovic is entering a crucial contract year in 2017-18, which will likely affect his NBA status going forward.
Overall, Pekovic’s career averages of 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game land him at number eight.
7. Donyell Marshall
After being drafted with the fourth overall pick in the 1994 NBA draft, Donyell Marshall went on to have a very successful NBA career.
However, very little of it was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Marshall only played 40 of his 957 career NBA games with the Timberwolves before being traded to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Tom Gugliotta.
After averaging 12.6 points and 5.6 rebounds his rookie year, Marshall made the All-Rookie second team.
He played six seasons in Golden State before he was traded to the Utah Jazz in a four-team deal.
After playing sporadically those first couple of seasons, Marshall really began to pick up his play.
The 1997-98 season marked the beginning of eight straight seasons where he averaged double-digits in scoring.
Marshall also averaged a double-double during the 1999-00 season when he posted 14.2 rebounds and 10 assists per game.
He was one of the first big men to be able to step outside and shoot the 3-pointer as well as bang down low to grab rebounds.
He ended up playing 15 seasons in the NBA with eight different teams, finishing with career averages of 11.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game while shooting 35 percent from the 3-point line.
6. Ricky Rubio
Ricky Rubio has been the cause of many debates since being drafted in 2009 with the fifth overall pick. Fans either love Rubio or hate him, there doesn’t seem to be an in-between.
Even though Rubio was drafted in 2009, he didn’t come to the NBA until two years later, making his debut at the start of the 2011-12 season.
Rubio’s first ever game NBA game came at the Target Center in front of the franchise’s first sellout crowd in four years.
He had a promising start but unfortunately, it was shortened when disaster hit. He tore his ACL in March of 2012 and wouldn’t appear in another game until next December.
Even given Rubio’s shortened rookie season, he still finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting and made the All-Rookie First team.
Throughout Rubio’s first six seasons in the NBA, he has constantly dazzled fans with his brilliant and creative passing.
He’s never had a season with less than 7.3 assists per game and finished this past season averaging a career-high 9.1.
Rubio has also finished in the NBA’s top ten in assists per game five times throughout his career.
Although he’s best known for his passing, it is important not to sleep on him on the defensive side of the floor.
Rubio has landed in the top ten in steals per game four different times. Three of those years he averaged more than two steals per game.
He was on a tear to finish the 2016-17 season and appears to be just hitting his stride as a player.
If Rubio continues to play like he did during the second half of this past season, he will tear up this list in a hurry.
5. Christian Laettner
If Christian Laettner‘s time at Duke is described as historic or great, his time in the NBA is described as chaotic and uncertain.
After having tons of success in college, Laettner was grabbed by the Minnesota Timberwolves as the third overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft.
Laettner was in for a big culture shock in Minnesota.
After being part of winning teams for four seasons at Duke, he was never able to cope with the losing he endured in Minnesota as the Timberwolves never won more than 26 games in any of the three full seasons he spent there.
Laettner did get his career off to a wonderful start by averaging 18.2 points and 8.7 rebounds during his rookie season. Those averages helped him earn a spot on the 1992-93 All-Rookie First Team.
His time with the Timberwolves wouldn’t get any better, as he decreased his scoring average the next two years.
Finally, he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks in the middle of the 1995-96 season.
The change of scenery proved to be good for Laettner as he made his only all-star appearance the next year with the Hawks.
Even though his averages of 18.1 points and 8.8 rebounds were very similar to his rookie year he was still awarded that great honor.
However, the 1996-97 season would mark the last good year Laettner had.
The following year his points per game dropped by 3.3 a game and he was traded to Detroit the following season.
When all was said and done, Laettner was traded six times in the NBA.
His NBA career may have started on a good note but it turned sour by his last year. During the final year of his career, the 2004-05 season, he was suspended for using marijuana.
In all, Laettner had a successful NBA career, even if it wasn’t the ones most scouts had predicted for him.
4. Isaiah Rider
Isaiah Rider didn’t mince words when he spoke. He was blunt and straight to the point.
Such was the case when Rider was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the fifth overall pick in the 1993 NBA draft.
On that day Rider predicted that he would win the Slam Dunk Championship, which he proved true two years later. He ended up winning with a dunk he called “The East Bay Funk Dunk.”
Rider reportedly struggled with his brashness as he often didn’t get along with teammates. This friction caused him to play for five different NBA teams in his nine years in the NBA.
He even began his NBA career by showing up late to his first ever practice with the Timberwolves.
Even despite these off the court reports, Rider’s career got off to an excellent start on it with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Rider dropped 16.6 points his rookie year while making the All-Rookie First Team.
That season marked the start of Rider averaging double-digits in scoring for the first seven years of his career.
He set his career high for points per game in just his second season with 20.4.
Rider’s best years of his career may have come during his three years in Minnesota. He averaged 18.8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game with the Wolves.
During the summer of 1996, Rider was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers for a couple of players and a first-round draft pick.
Rider’s time in Portland was up and down.
On the court, he proved he belonged in the NBA by continuing to put up good scoring numbers.
Off the court, however, was a completely different story.
Rider was convicted of a misdemeanor marijuana possession during his time in Portland and would fight drug accusations later in his career as well.
He would only play three seasons in Portland until he was again traded in August of 1999 to the Atlanta Hawks.
It was a free fall from Atlanta.
Despite averaging 19.3 points in 60 games for the Hawks, he was abruptly released in March 2000.
The Hawks had previously suspended Rider for three games because he showed up late to a game. Rider, however, refused to accept that suspension and, as a result, was released by the Hawks.
He played sparingly for the last two seasons of his career, finishing with a career average of 16.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists per game.
3. Wally Szczerbiak
Wally Szczerbiak might be one of the most beloved players in Minnesota Timberwolves’ history.
The one-time All-Star was selected out of Miami University with the sixth overall pick in the 1999 NBA draft.
He spent the better part of six seasons in Minnesota, recording some of the best seasons of his career.
Szczerbiak started out his career in the NBA on the right foot by making the 1999-00 All-Rookie First Team. He was able to accomplish that by scoring 11.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 2.8 assists per game.
Szczerbiak’s big jump in play came between his second and third years in the NBA. He increased is scoring by 4.7 points and averaged 18.7 points per game during 2001-02.
During that season, he also made substantial improvement in his outside shooting, making 45 percent of his 3-pointers that year. That shooting barrage would catapult Szczerbiak to finish his career as a 40 percent shooter from downtown.
Perhaps his biggest moment as a player came during that 2001-02 season when he was a coaches’ selection to the Western Conference All-Star Team that year, his only appearance.
He was traded to the Boston Celtics during the middle of the 1998-99 NBA season and finished his career playing for four teams over the last four years.
Szczerbiak struggled with injuries to his knees and ankles throughout the majority of his career. Those injuries greatly hampered his ability to be productive over the long term.
Szczerbiak is best known for his accurate shooting as he finished in the top 10 of the NBA in 2-point field goal percentage on four separate occasions.
He last played in the NBA in 2008-09 with the Cleveland Cavaliers before retiring.
2. Karl-Anthony Towns
After two years in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns has already jumped up to second on the Top 20 Minnesota Timberwolves Draft Pick’s list of all time.
I’m not sure if that says more about Towns’ stellar play or about the lack of success the Timberwolves have had drafting players in their franchise’s history.
Towns’ selection in the 2015 NBA Draft marked the first time in Timberwolves’ franchise history they drafted from the number one overall spot.
And Towns didn’t disappoint, as he exploded onto the scene during his rookie year in 2015-16, averaging 18.3 points and grabbing 10.5 rebounds per game.
On his way to unanimously winning Rookie of the Year, he swept the Rookie of the Month awards, not allowing any other player to claim that title for the Western Conference.
Towns has proven to be a record breaker in his first two seasons in the NBA.
He set the Timberwolves rookie rebound record by grabbing 858 total rebounds during his first season. He also set the the Wolves’ rookie scoring record by dropping 1,503 points.
Towns’ second year was even more successful as he averaged 25.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game.
He continued to set records with the Wolves as he broke the team record for most consecutive games with at least one blocked shot in early December.
Towns also racked up his first ever triple-double on Dec 28, when he dropped 15 points, 11, rebounds, and 10 assists against the Houston Rockets.
Towns wasn’t finished there, as he accomplished a very impressive feat that nobody in NBA history had every done before.
He became the first ever player to have at least 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 100 3-pointers in a single season.
Oh, and he also set the Timberwolves franchise record for most points in a single season with 2,061.
All of that is reason enough as to why Towns deserves to be number two on this list.
Hopefully, he has a lot more success ahead of him, especially if it’s in a Minnesota Timberwolves’ uniform.
1. Kevin Garnett
Everybody knew that Kevin Garnett would take his rightful spot at number one on this list as he wasn’t called The Big Ticket for nothing.
Garnett is the greatest player to ever put on a Minnesota Timberwolves uniform, never the less be drafted by the Wolves as well.
He was picked in 1995 with the fifth overall selection, where he came straight from High School in Chicago, Illinois.
Garnett would go on to have an amazing career in the NBA, spending his first 12 seasons in Minnesota before coming back to finish the last two years of his career.
Off the court, Garnett is extremely caring and giving when it comes to his community. He won the 2005-06 J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award.
On the court, however, is a different story, where he will always be known for his fiery intensity and non-stop trash talk.
Garnett made 15 appearances in the All-Star game, 10 of them coming with the Timberwolves. His first appearance came during his second season when he averaged 17 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks per game.
Garnett’s Timberwolves’ career was successful from a personal level but garnered mixed results from a team’s perspective.
He led the Wolves to their first playoff appearance in franchise history during the 1996-97 season. That was the spark of eight straight playoff appearances for the team.
The Wolves weren’t able to win a series in the playoffs, however, until 2003-04 when they made it to the Western Conference Finals. That’s also the last time any Timberwolves’ team has made the playoffs.
Garnett won MVP that season but wasn’t able to take the Timberwolves any farther.
He became frustrated with the team as they went downhill from their peak in 2003-04.
Garnett was eventually traded to the Celtics in 2007 in exchange for five players and two draft picks.
Garnett was very successful in Boston. He earned the 2007-08 Defensive Player of the Year honors on his way to winning his first and only NBA championship with the Boston Celtics.
His defense is what set him apart from the rest of power forwards who could score. Even with his wiry frame, Garnett was able to use his length to deflect shots and passes as he averaged 1.3 steals and 1.4 blocks per game throughout his career.
He came back to Minnesota for the final two years of his career but played a vastly different role than before. Garnett was mostly asked to be a mentor and teach the young players how to work and play hard on a nightly basis.
Next: Minnesota Timberwolves Podcast: Biggest Season Takeaways
He continues to be remembered as the greatest Minnesota Timberwolf of all time, landing him at number one on our list.