List of Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches

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Ryan Saunders was the head coach for the Timberwolves between 2019-2021.

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 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[]

Note: Statistics are current through May 9, 2021.

Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches
Name Term[b] GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements Reference
Regular season Playoffs
1 Bill Musselman 1989–1991 164 51 113 .311 — — — — [6]
2 Jimmy Rodgers 1991–1993 111 21 90 .189 — — — — [7]
3 Sidney Lowe 1993–1994 135 33 102 .244 — — — — [8]
4 Bill Blair 1994–1995 102 27 75 .265 — — — — [9]
5 Flip Saunders 1995–2005 737 411 326 .558 47 17 30 .362 2003–04 Midwest Division championship [10]
6 Kevin McHale 2005 31 19 12 .613 — — — — [11]
7 Dwane Casey 2005–2007 122 53 69 .434 — — — — [12]
8 Randy Wittman 2007–2008 143 38 105 .266 — — — — [13]
— Kevin McHale 2008–2009 63 20 43 .317 — — — — [11]
9 Kurt Rambis 2009–2011 164 32 132 .195 — — — — [14]
10 Rick Adelman 2011–2014 230 97 133 .422 — — — — [15]
－ Flip Saunders 2014–2015 82 16 66 .195 — — — — [10]
11 Sam Mitchell 2015–2016 82 29 53 .354 — — — — [16]
12 Tom Thibodeau 2016–2019 204 97 107 .475 5 1 4 .200 [17]
13 Ryan Saunders 2019–2021 137 43 94 .314 — — — — [18]
14 Chris Finch 2021–present 41 16 25 .390 — — — — [19]

  • Rick Adelman coached the team for three seasons.

  • Flip Saunders was the head coach of the Timberwolves for 10 seasons.

  • On October 25, 2015, Saunders died and Mitchell took head coaching duties.

  • Tom Thibodeau coached the team for three seasons.

Head coaches with multiple tenures[]

Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches
with multiple tenures
Name Term[b] GC W L Win% Reference
Regular season
Kevin McHale 2005; 2008–2009 94 39 55 .415 [11]
Flip 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. Archived from the original on June 21, 2019. 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. ^ a b c "Flip Saunders Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  11. ^ a b c "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.
  16. ^ "Sam Mitchell Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com.
  17. ^ "Tom Thibodeau Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  18. ^ "Ryan Saunders Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com.
  19. ^ "Chris Finch Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com.
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