Minnesota Timberwolves: 3 best players all-time at each position

Center

1. Karl-Anthony Towns
2. Nikola Pekovic
3. Al Jefferson

While the top spot was unanimous, there was a bit of disagreement regarding the order of the runner-ups.

Towns is already third in Wolves history with two All-Star appearances and he may have had a third if he hadn’t gotten hurt in December of the 2019-20 campaign. While questions remain about his defense and Minnesota has only made the playoffs once in his five seasons in the league, the 2015 Rookie of the Year is easily a once-in-a-generation talent and the sky remains the limit for KAT.

Pekovic received two-thirds of the votes for second on this list. While his career averages were just 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds per game over six seasons, a slow start and battered finish hide just how good his peak was.

From 2012 to 2014, Pekovic averaged 16.9 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. The problem, however, was that he appeared in only 116 of a possible 164 games (70.7 percent). Or, put another way, he missed 29.3 percent of the Wolves games during the best two seasons of his career.

Jefferson remains one of the best players of the last decade or so to have never made an All-Star team. The centerpiece of the Wolves’ return from Boston when Garnett was traded in the summer of 2007, Big Al broke out in a Timberwolves uniform, averaging 20.1 points and 10.4 rebounds over three seasons.

Clearly, Jefferson’s counting stats were superior, while the relative competitiveness of Pek’s teams left a better taste in the mouths of Wolves fans.

The three Jefferson-led teams had a collective record of 61-246, a winning percentage of 24.8. During Pekovic’s peak from 2012 to 2014, the Wolves went 71-93, good enough for a 43.3 percent mark.

We had one vote for a center that didn’t make the otherwise-unanimous top three listed above…

Comments from our contributors

Jack Borman

While Jefferson’s three-year stretch was a good one statistically, Gorgui Dieng comes in at No. 3 on my list for a few reasons.

It’s hard to find a player that has suited up in a Wolves jersey that is more widely-loved than Dieng. He’s an incredible human being off the floor, always flashed that wide smile of his, and produced when was given the opportunity. G is fourth in games played and rebounds, third in blocks, and sixth in defensive win shares in team history.

For six-plus seasons, Gorgui Dieng was the picturesque Timberwolves role player: fans loved him, he made the occasional huge play, got scintillatingly hot for about five or six games a year, and stuck it out with the Wolves longer than what was probably best for his sake.