In many of their seasons since their inaugural year, the Minnesota Timberwolves were not a playoff contender. In 23 of their 36 years as an NBA franchise, they did not qualify for postseason play. 12 of their 13 postseason appearances come over two stretches. Minnesota qualified eight straight years from 1997 until 2004, and is also on a current four-year streak of doing so. Now, the Timberwolves need 56 wins in 2025-26 to have their best three-season stretch in team history.
Timberwolves have 104 wins the last two regular seasons
The Timberwolves have made the conference finals the last two seasons. In them, they went 56-26 (2023-24) and 49-33 (2024-25) during the regular season. That gives them 105 wins in the past two years.
The franchise record for wins over a three-season period is 159, meaning the Wolves this season would need 54 wins to tie the mark, and 55 to break it. The team accomplished their best three-year stretch from 2001-02 until 2003-04, where their records in those years were 50-32, 51-31, and 58-24. Those 58 wins are a single-season team record for Minnesota.
Obviously, it will be difficult for the Timberwolves to reach that needed win total to set a new team record. DraftKings Sportsbook has its over/under win total of 48.5 (over listed at -120). ESPN’s NBA Summer Forecast gave them a projected record of 51-31. The Western Conference is quite competitive, making it so the Timberwolves won’t have many easy contests within their conference.
This is the most successful period for Timberwolves when it comes to the postseason
Even if they don’t win 54 or 55 games in the upcoming season, it could be argued that as long as they don’t completely fall off, it’s still Minnesota’s most successful three-year period.
Prior to the 2024 playoffs, the Timberwolves only had one season where they had even won a single playoff series. That was in 2004 when they reached the conference finals, losing to the Lakers in six games. That gave them two playoff series wins from 2001-02 until 2003-04, while the Timberwolves have four just over the last two years.
Both eras are similar, though, being that the Timberwolves had a superstar player in both of them. Kevin Garnett took home the MVP in 2003-04 and was the runner-up in 2002-03. Anthony Edwards has finished seventh in MVP voting for the past two years and is only 24 years old.