The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team based in

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. They play in the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA). There have been 14

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

es for the Timberwolves. The franchise's first head coach was Bill Musselman, who coached for two complete seasons. Musselman, along with

Kurt Rambis Darrell Kurt Rambis (born February 25, 1958) is a Greek-American former professional basketball player and coach who is a senior basketball adviser for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a player, he won fou ...

and

Rick Adelman Richard Leonard Adelman (born June 16, 1946) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He coached 23 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Adelman served as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden ...

, are the only Timberwolves head coaches to have not been involved in a mid-season replacement. In the ,

Flip Saunders Philip Daniel "Flip" Saunders (February 23, 1955 – October 25, 2015) was an American basketball player and coach. During his career, he coached the La Crosse Catbirds, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Wizards. High schoo ...

, who coached the team from when he replaced Bill Blair until being replaced mid-season in , 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 In sports, a winning percentage is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of match ...

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. 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. McHale coached the Timberwolves in two separate stints, and was the Timberwolves Vice President of Basketball Operations from 1995 to 2009.

Sidney Lowe Sidney Rochell Lowe (born January 21, 1960) is an American former basketball player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Lowe played college basketball and served ...

is the only person to have been both a player (1989–1990) and a head coach (1993–1994) for the Timberwolves.

Key

Head coaches

''Note: Statistics are current through April 10, 2023.'' File:Rick Adelman.png,

coached the team for three seasons. File:Flip Saunders.jpg, Flip Saunders was the head coach of the Timberwolves for 10 seasons. File:Sam Mitchell (1705066) (cropped).jpg, On October 25, 2015, Saunders died and Mitchell took head coaching duties. File:Tom Thibodeau cropped.jpg, Tom Thibodeau coached the team for three seasons. File:Saunders-20190120 (cropped).jpg,

Ryan Saunders Ryan Philip Saunders (born April 28, 1986) is an American basketball assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He is known for his work as a Head coach for the Minnesota Timberwolves and in player devel ...

was the head coach of the team for two seasons.

Head coaches with multiple tenures

Notes

* 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. * Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.

References

;General * * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Minnesota Timberwolves head coaches Lists of National Basketball Association head coaches by team * Head coaches