List of Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches

Tom Thibodeau is the current head coach for the Timberwolves.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA).^[1] There have been 10 head coaches for the Timberwolves.

The franchise's first head coach was Bill Musselman, who coached for two complete seasons. Musselman, along with Kurt Rambis and Rick Adelman, are the only Timberwolves head coaches to have not been involved in a mid-season replacement. In the 2003–04 season, Flip Saunders, who coached the team from 1995–96 when he replaced Bill Blair until being replaced mid-season in 2004–05, became the first and only Timberwolves head coach to have led the team to a division championship as well as the Western Conference Finals, with a playoffs record of 17 wins and 30 losses. His 819 regular season games coached, 427 regular season wins, 392 regular season losses and his regular season winning percentage of .521 lead all Timberwolves head coaches. Saunders and Adelman are the only two who have been Timberwolves head coach for more than two complete seasons. Saunders returned to the Timberwolves in 2013 as President of Basketball Operations and part-owner, and became head coach once again in 2014.^[2]

Though none of the Timberwolves coaches have been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach, Kevin McHale has been elected into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1999.^[3] McHale coached the Timberwolves in two separate stints, and was the Timberwolves Vice President of Basketball Operations from 1995 to 2009.^[4] Sidney Lowe is the only person to have been both a player (1989–1990) and a head coach (1993–1994) for the Timberwolves.^[5]

Key

Key of abbreviations

Abbreviation	Definition
GC	Games coached
W	Wins
L	Losses
Win%	Winning percentage
#	Number of coaches^[a]
—	Does not apply

Head coaches

Kurt Rambis coached the team for two seasons.

Saunders was the head coach of the Timberwolves for 10 seasons, and is the only one to have led them to the playoffs.

Note: Statistics are correct through the start of the 2015–16 season.

On October 25, 2015, Saunders passed away and Mitchell took head coaching duties.

Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches

	Name	Term^[b]	GC	W	L	Win%	GC	W	L	Win%	Achievements	Reference
			Regular season				Playoffs
1	Musselman, BillBill Musselman	1989–1991	164	51	113	.311	& —	& —	& —	& —		[6]
2	Rodgers, JimmyJimmy Rodgers	1991–1993	111	21	90	.189	& —	& —	& —	& —		[7]
3	Lowe, SidneySidney Lowe	1993–1994	135	33	102	.244	& —	& —	& —	& —		[8]
4	Blair, BillBill Blair	1994–1995	102	27	75	.265	& —	& —	& —	& —		[9]
5	Saunders, FlipFlip Saunders	1995–2005	737	411	326	.558	47	17	30	.362	2003–04 Midwest Division championship	[10]
6	McHale, KevinKevin McHale	2005	31	19	12	.613	& —	& —	& —	& —		[11]
7	Casey, DwaneDwane Casey	2005–2007	122	53	69	.434	& —	& —	& —	& —		[12]
8	Wittman, RandyRandy Wittman	2007–2008	143	38	105	.266	& —	& —	& —	& —		[13]
—	McHale, KevinKevin McHale	2008–2009	63	20	43	.317	& —	& —	& —	& —		[11]
9	Rambis, KurtKurt Rambis	2009–2011	164	32	132	.195	& —	& —	& —	& —		[14]
10	Adelman, RickRick Adelman	2011–2014	230	97	133	.422	& —	& —	& —	& —		[15]
－	Saunders, FlipFlip Saunders	2014–2015	82	16	66	.195	& —	& —	& —	& —		[10]
11	Mitchell, SamSam Mitchell	2015–2016	82	29	53	.354	& —	& —	& —	& —
12	Thibodeau, TomTom Thibodeau	2016–present	–	–	–	–	& —	& —	& —	& —

Head coaches with multiple tenures

Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches
with multiple tenures

Name	Term^[b]	GC	W	L	Win%	Reference
		Regular season
McHale, KevinKevin McHale	2005; 2008–2009	94	39	55	.415	[11]
Saunders, FlipFlip Saunders	1995–2005; 2014–2015	819	427	392	.521	[10]

Notes

• ^a A running total of the number of coaches of the Timberwolves. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
• ^{b 1 2} Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.

References

General

• "Minnesota Timberwolves Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 11, 2013.
• "Minnesota Timberwolves Franchise Index". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 11, 2013.

Specific

1. "Teams". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
2. "Timberwolves Basketball Operations Staff". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
3. "Kevin McHale Playing Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 28, 2010.
4. "McHale says he wanted to remain coach". ESPN.com. June 20, 2009. Retrieved December 1, 2013.
5. "Sidney Lowe Playing Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
6. "Bill Musselman Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
7. "Jimmy Rodgers Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
8. "Sidney Lowe Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
9. "Bill Blair Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
10. "Flip Saunders Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
11. "Kevin McHale Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
12. "Dwane Casey Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
13. "Randy Wittman Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
14. "Kurt Rambis Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
15. "Rick Adelman Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 23, 2011.