1995–96 Minnesota Timberwolves season

1995–96 Minnesota Timberwolves season
Kevin Garnett's rookie season
Head coach	Flip Saunders
Owner(s)	Glen Taylor
Arena	Target Center
Results
Record	26–56 (.317)
Place	Division: 5th (Midwest) Conference: 12th (Western)
Playoff finish	Did Not Qualify
Stats @ Basketball-Reference.com
Local media
Television	Midwest Sports Channel, KARE, KLGT
Radio	KFAN

The 1995-96 NBA season was the Timberwolves' 7th season in the NBA.^[1] In the 1995 NBA Draft, the Timberwolves selected high school star Kevin Garnett with their fifth pick, and signed Terry Porter as a free agent during the offseason. Along the way, they traded Christian Laettner and Sean Rooks to the Atlanta Hawks for Andrew Lang and Spud Webb at midseason. The Timberwolves finished fifth in the Midwest Division with a 26-56 record, missing the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. Following the season, Isaiah Rider was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers.

Offseason

NBA Draft

Round	Pick	Player	Position	Nationality	College
1	5	Kevin Garnett	SF/PF	United States	Farragut Academy HS
2	48	Mark Davis	SG/SF	United States	Texas Tech
2	49	Jerome Allen	PG	United States	Pennsylvania

Kevin Garnett

In Garnett's rookie season, the Timberwolves were in the midst of a transition phase; they replaced Bill Blair with Flip Saunders as head coach early in the season and made several trades. Garnett initially came off the bench in his rookie year, but moved into the starting lineup soon after Saunders became head coach. In his rookie year, Garnett and fellow newcomer Tom Gugliotta carried the scoring load. Garnett did not immediately leap to stardom as later prep-to-pro prospects such as Amar'e Stoudemire, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard would, but he did have a very respectable rookie year. He averaged 10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game and was voted into the All-Rookie Second Team.^[2] Despite having some promising players, the Timberwolves suffered through their seventh consecutive sub-30 win season and failed to make the playoffs. At the time Garnett was the youngest NBA player in history at 19 years and 11 months of age.

Roster

Minnesota Timberwolves roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. No. Name Height Weight DOB (YYYY–MM–DD) From SG 53 Allen, Jerome 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) 184 lb (83 kg) Pennsylvania PF 33 Bragg, Marques 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m) 230 lb (104 kg) Providence SF 7 Davis, Mark 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Texas Tech SF 21 Garnett, Kevin 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 220 lb (100 kg) Farragut Academy (HS) PF 24 Gugliotta, Tom 6 ft 10 in (2.08 m) 240 lb (109 kg) North Carolina State C 28 Lang, Andrew 6 ft 11 in (2.11 m) 245 lb (111 kg) Arkansas PG 15 Martin, Darrick 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m) 170 lb (77 kg) UCLA SF 42 Mitchell, Sam 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 210 lb (95 kg) Mercer PG 30 Porter, Terry 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) 195 lb (88 kg) Wisconsin-Stevens Point SG 34 Rider, Isaiah 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) 215 lb (98 kg) UNLV C 40 Riley, Eric 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) 245 lb (111 kg) Michigan PG 4 Webb, Spud 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) 133 lb (60 kg) North Carolina State SG 5 West, Doug (C) 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) 200 lb (91 kg) Villanova PG 4 Williams, Micheal  6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) 175 lb (79 kg) Baylor	Head coach Flip Saunders (Minnesota) Assistant coach(es) Greg Ballard (Oregon) Mike Schuler (Ohio) Jerry Sichting (Purdue) Randy Wittman (Indiana) Legend (C) Team captain (DP) Unsigned draft pick (FA) Free agent (S) Suspended Injured Roster • Transactions

Regular season

Season standings

Midwest Division	W	L	PCT	GB	Home	Road	Div
y-San Antonio Spurs	59	23	.720	–	33–8	26–15	19–5
x-Utah Jazz	55	27	.671	4	34–7	21–20	14–10
x-Houston Rockets	48	34	.585	11	27–14	21–20	15–9
Denver Nuggets	35	47	.427	24	24–17	11–30	13–11
Dallas Mavericks	26	56	.317	33	16–25	10–31	10–14
Minnesota Timberwolves	26	56	.317	33	17–24	9–32	10–14
Vancouver Grizzlies	15	67	.183	44	10–31	5–36	3–21

Player statistics

Legend
GP	Games played	GS	Games started	MPG	Minutes per game
FG%	Field-goal percentage	3P%	3-point field-goal percentage	FT%	Free-throw percentage
RPG	Rebounds per game	APG	Assists per game	SPG	Steals per game
BPG	Blocks per game	PPG	Points per game

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3FG%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Jerome Allen
Marques Bragg
Mark Davis
Kevin Garnett
Tom Gugliotta
Christian Laettner
Andrew Lang
Darrick Martin
Sam Mitchell
Terry Porter
Isaiah Rider
Eric Riley
Sean Rooks
Charles Smith
Spud Webb
Doug West
Micheal Williams

Awards and honors

• Kevin Garnett, NBA All-Rookie Second Team

References

1. 1995-96 Minnesota Timberwolves
2. Kevin Garnett Statistics - Basketball-Reference.com

• Minnesota Timberwolves on Database Basketball
• Minnesota Timberwolves on Basketball Reference