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 14 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, Flip Saunders became the first and to date only Timberwolves head coach to have led the team to a division championship. Saunders, along with current head coach Chris Finch, are the only two to have led the team to the Western Conference Finals. With a playoffs record of 17 wins and 30 losses, 819 regular season games coached, 427 regular season wins, and 392 regular season losses, Saunders leads all Timberwolves head coaches and is second to Finch's regular season winning percentage of .557. Saunders, Adelman, Tom Thibodeau, and Finch are the only four who have been head coach of the Timberwolves 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 and Sam Mitchell are the only persons to have been both a player and a head coach for the Timberwolves.
| Abbreviation | Definition |
|---|---|
| GC | Games coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Losses |
| Win% | Winning percentage |
| Number of coaches | |
| — | Does not apply |
Note: Statistics are current through April 13, 2024.
| Name | Term | GC | W | L | Win% | GC | W | L | Win% | Achievements | Reference | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||
| – | 164 | 51 | 113 | .311 | [5] | ||||||||
| – | 111 | 21 | 90 | .189 | [6] | ||||||||
| – | 135 | 33 | 102 | .244 | [7] | ||||||||
| – | 102 | 27 | 75 | .265 | [8] | ||||||||
| – | 737 | 411 | 326 | .558 | 47 | 17 | 30 | .362 | Midwest Division championship | [9] | |||
| 31 | 19 | 12 | .613 | [10] | |||||||||
| – | 122 | 53 | 69 | .434 | [11] | ||||||||
| – | 143 | 38 | 105 | .266 | [12] | ||||||||
| 63 | 20 | 43 | .317 | ||||||||||
| – | 164 | 32 | 132 | .195 | [13] | ||||||||
| – | 230 | 97 | 133 | .422 | [14] | ||||||||
| 82 | 16 | 66 | |||||||||||
| 82 | 29 | 53 | [15] | ||||||||||
| – | 204 | 97 | 107 | 5 | 1 | 4 | [16] | ||||||
| – | 137 | 43 | 94 | — | — | — | — | [17] | |||||
| –present | 287 | 160 | 127 | 11 | 3 | 8 | [18] | ||||||
| Name | Term | GC | W | L | Win% | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | ||||||
| 94 | 39 | 55 | .415 | |||
| –; | 819 | 427 | 392 | |||