The Minnesota Timberwolves certainly didn’t begin their NBA journey as a contender. With their inaugural season coming in 1989-90, the team didn’t win more than 29 games in any of their first seven years. Their first winning season didn’t come until their ninth year in 1997-98, when they went 45-37.
Then, from 2005-06 until 2016-17, the Wolves finished with a losing record every season. Minnesota has had a winning season the last four years though, while making their second and third ever Western Conference finals appearances in the last two. Now, they are getting much closer to exiting the basement as having the worst all-time win percentage amongst the 30 current NBA teams.
Timberwolves looking to exit the cellar rather soon
Entering the 2025-26 season, the Timberwolves have an all-time record of 1,196-1,680 in their first 36 years in the league. That gives them a win percentage of .416, 30th-best among the 30 NBA teams. Here are the three-closest teams that they are looking up to.
- Timberwolves .416
- Nets .425 (not including time in ABA)
- Clippers .426
- Hornets .427
According to DraftKings SportsBook, the Clippers have an O/U win total of 47.5 for 2025-26. So let’s ignore them. The Timberwolves are at 49.5, while the Nets and Hornets are much lower at 21.5 and 25.5, respectively.
Let’s say Minnesota, Brooklyn, and Charlotte all go half a win over that total in 2025-26 (50, 22, and 26 wins respectively). That would then put their career winning percentages after the 2025-26 season as follows:
- Timberwolves .421
- Nets .422
- Hornets .424
As you see, the Wolves would still rank last, but it surely has them gaining a lot of ground on soon passing both of those teams (especially the Nets). How could Minnesota surpass the Nets in the upcoming season? If they were to win 52 games and Brooklyn wins 21, Minnesota would be ahead of them by mere percentage points.
2026-27 could be the season that Minnesota moves up
Even if the Timberwolves are not quite unable to overtake the Nets (or Hornets) next season, they should be much closer to doing so, unless something completely unforseen occurs.
The 2026-27 season could be the one where they could surpass one or both of those teams in all-time win percentage. The Timberwolves have the majority of their key pieces signed through that year (other than Mike Conley and Jaylen Clark). It would be surprising if both Brooklyn and Charlotte took substantial jumps where they perform around the level of Minnesota that season.