Minnesota Timberwolves: Top 5 steals leaders in team history

5. Doug West

A good place to start this list is with an original Timberwolves player. Doug West was chosen by Minnesota in the second round of the 1989 NBA Draft after playing four years at Villanova. He comes in at fifth on this list with 428 total steals throughout his time in Minnesota.

West came off the bench as a shooting guard during the Wolves’ inaugural 1989-1990 season and worked his way up to a consistent starter by the 1991-1992 season. Many Wolves fans today are unaware of the contributions that West made to the franchise in the early ‘90s. In addition to his stellar defensive play, West was known for his dazzling dunks. Dunks like these earned him a spot in the 1992 NBA dunk contest:

Unfortunately for West, what goes up must come down. After coming off of a career season in 1992-1993 in which he averaged over 19 points per game and over one steal per game, his numbers took a sharp decline. When Isaiah Rider was drafted in 1993 to play shooting guard, West was forced into the small forward role, where he could never reclaim his shooting guard form.

During his nine years with the Timberwolves franchise, West amassed 609 games played and was the last remaining player from the inaugural season before being traded to Vancouver in 1998.