Timberwolves Playoffs Tickets

The Minnesota Timberwolves joined the NBA in 1989 and brought an end to a 30-year hiatus for Minneapolis, with the Lakers having left for California to become the Los Angeles Lakers.

For each of their first seven seasons, the team struggled, collecting a best total of 29 wins in 1990-91 and a worst of 15 the following campaign, never getting close to a playoff berth.

Immediate Impact

That all changed once Flip Saunders took charge of the team.

In each of his eight full seasons in charge, Saunders took the Timberwolves to the playoffs, which is quite a turnaround.

All-Time High

Admittedly they struggled to make an impact in the postseason, losing in the first round on seven successive occasions. However, in 2003-04, with Kevin Garnett at the peak of his powers, the team beat the Denver Nuggets in the first round and the Sacramento Kings in the Conference Semifinals before losing out to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference Finals.

That was the only season in franchise history where they won a division title; they also finished top of the Western Conference, also for the one and only time they've managed to do so.

Flip Saunders left, and the team once again struggled to impress.

Drought

A 13-season postseason drought followed, this coming to an end in 2017-18 when the team inevitably lost in the first round of the playoffs, this time to the Houston Rockets.

Flip Saunders' son Ryan Saunders failed to turn things around, but current head coach Chris Finch has done a better job, securing back-to-back playoff finishes in 2021-22 and 2022-23.

Underperforming

Over the course of the team's 30+ years in the NBA, they have secured a place in one Western Conference Finals series, which is a pretty poor return given they have made it to the Western Conference playoffs on 11 occasions.

It would be fair to say that Timberwolves playoff games are rare and tend to involve the team limping out early on, something Finch will hope to reverse in the coming seasons.