1996–97 Minnesota Timberwolves season

The 1996–97 Minnesota Timberwolves season was the eighth season for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association.

Season summary

Off-season The Timberwolves received the fifth overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft, and selected shooting guard Ray Allen from the University of Connecticut; however, the team soon traded Allen to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for rookie point guard, and first-round draft pick Stephon Marbury out of Georgia Tech University on draft day. During the off-season, the team acquired James Robinson from the Portland Trail Blazers, and second-year center Cherokee Parks from the Dallas Mavericks, while signing free agents, rookie center Dean Garrett, second-year guard Chris Carr, and Stojko Vrankovic. However, Michael Williams would miss the entire regular season due to a strained plantar fascia in his left heel.

For the season, the Timberwolves redesigned their primary logo, replacing the color blue with slated blue and black to their color scheme of green, silver and white. The team's primary logo featured a silver wolf with yellow eyes and a black shadow on the left side of its face, along with black and slated blue outlines; the wolf is surrounded by green pine trees with black outlines, above the state name Minnesota in silver letters on a black rectangle, and the team name "Timberwolves" in slated blue letters with black and white outlines. The team also redesigned their home and road uniforms, which featured a black trim of green pine trees on their jerseys, waistband, and the bottom left leg of their shorts; the right leg featured the team's primary logo of a wolf's head. The home uniforms remained white, while the road uniforms were changed from royal blue to slated blue.

The team's new primary logo, and new uniforms would both remain in use until 2008, where the logo would be slightly redesigned.

Regular season With the addition of Marbury, Garrett and Robinson, the Timberwolves got off to a 7–8 start to the regular season. However, the team posted a six-game losing streak afterwards, while losing nine of their next ten games, leading to an 8–17 start to the season. The Timberwolves soon recovered and later on held a 23–25 record at the All-Star break. The Timberwolves showed improvement by finishing in third place in the Midwest Division with a 40–42 record, which was below .500 in winning percentage, but still good enough to earn the sixth seed in the Western Conference; the team qualified for their first ever NBA playoff appearance in franchise history, ending a seven-year playoff drought.

Tom Gugliotta averaged 20.6 points, 8.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.6 steals per game, while second-year star Kevin Garnett showed improvement averaging 17.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 2.1 blocks per game, and Marbury provided the team with 15.8 points and 7.8 assists per game, and contributed 102 three-point field goals, playing in 67 games due to ankle and thigh injuries, as he was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In addition, Sam Mitchell played a sixth man role off the bench, averaging 9.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, while Garrett provided with 8.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game, and Doug West contributed 7.8 points per game. Off the bench, Robinson contributed 8.3 points per game and 102 three-point field goals, while Terry Porter provided with 6.9 points and 3.6 assists per game, Carr contributed 6.1 points per game, and Vrankovic averaged 3.4 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game, starting at center for half of the regular season.

During the NBA All-Star weekend at the Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, Gugliotta and Garnett were both selected for the 1997 NBA All-Star Game, as members of the Western Conference All-Star team; it was Garnett's first ever All-Star appearance, and the first and only All-Star appearance for Gugliotta. Meanwhile, Marbury was selected for the NBA Rookie Game, as a member of the Western Conference Rookie team, but did not participate due to a thigh injury, and Carr participated in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. Gugliotta finished tied in 17th place in Most Valuable Player voting, while Garnett finished in eighth place in Most Improved Player voting, with Gugliotta finishing tied in ninth place; Marbury finished in second place in Rookie of the Year voting, behind Allen Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, and head coach Flip Saunders finished tied in sixth place in Coach of the Year voting.

The Timberwolves finished 14th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 697,727 at the Target Center during the regular season.

NBA playoffs In the Western Conference First Round of the 1997 NBA playoffs, the Timberwolves faced off against the 3rd–seeded Houston Rockets, who were led by the All-Star trio of Hakeem Olajuwon, Charles Barkley and Clyde Drexler. The Timberwolves lost the first two games to the Rockets on the road at The Summit, before losing Game 3 at home, 125–120 at the Target Center, thus losing the series in a three-game sweep. It was also Garnett's first ever NBA playoff appearance.

Aftermath Following the season, Garrett signed as a free agent with the Denver Nuggets, while Robinson signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, and Vrankovic was traded to the Clippers.

Draft picks

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 5 Ray Allen SG Connecticut

Roster

Roster Notes Power forward Bill Curley was on the injured reserve list rehabilitating from surgery on his right knee, and missed the entire regular season. Point guard Michael Williams was on the injured reserve list due to a sore left heel injury, and missed the entire regular season.

Regular season

Season standings

z – clinched division title y – clinched division title x – clinched playoff spot

Game log

Playoffs

Player statistics

Ragular season PlayerPG82 20 1,568 176 295 54 11 568 19.1 2.1 3.6 .7 .1 6.9SF82 5 2,044 326 79 51 20 766 24.9 4.0 1.0 .6 .2 9.3PF 81 81 3,131 702 335 130 89 1,672 38.7 8.7 4.1 1.6 1.1 20.6SF 77 77 2,995 618 236 105 163 1,309 38.9 8.0 3.1 1.4 2.1 17.0PF 76 0 961 195 34 41 48 252 12.6 2.6 .4 .5 .6 3.3PG 69 5 1,309 112 126 30 8 572 19.0 1.6 1.8 .4 .1 8.3SG 68 66 1,920 148 113 61 24 531 28.2 2.2 1.7 .9 .4 7.8C 68 47 1,665 495 38 40 95 542 24.5 7.3 .6 .6 1.4 8.0PG 67 64 2,324 184 522 67 19 1,057 34.7 2.7 7.8 1.0 .3 15.8SG 55 10 830 113 48 24 10 337 15.1 2.1 .9 .4 .2 6.1C 53 35 766 168 14 10 67 181 14.5 3.2 .3 .2 1.3 3.4PG 43 0 236 18 33 3 3 75 5.5 .4 .8 .1 .1 1.7†SG 10 0 31 4 1 2 0 20 3.1 .4 .1 .2 .0 2.0

Playoffs PlayerSF3 3 125 28 11 4 3 52 41.7 9.3 3.7 1.3 1.0 17.3PF3 3 121 16 13 7 2 55 40.3 5.3 4.3 2.3 .7 18.3C3 3 118 35 4 2 3 38 39.3 11.7 1.3 .7 1.0 12.7PG3 3 117 12 23 2 0 64 39.0 4.0 7.7 .7 .0 21.3SG3 3 87 4 6 2 1 33 29.0 1.3 2.0 .7 .3 11.0SF3 0 47 7 1 1 1 17 15.7 2.3 .3 .3 .3 5.7PG3 0 46 3 9 2 2 16 15.3 1.0 3.0 .7 .7 5.3PG 2 0 31 3 3 2 0 14 15.5 1.5 1.5 1.0 .0 7.0PG 2 0 3 0 1 0 0 6 1.5 .0 .5 .0 .0 3.0PF 1 0 11 5 0 1 0 4 11.0 5.0 .0 1.0 .0 4.0SG 1 0 8 2 1 0 0 0 8.0 2.0 1.0 .0 .0 .0C 1 0 6 1 0 0 0 0 6.0 1.0 .0 .0 .0 .0

Awards and records Kevin Garnett, NBA All-Star Tom Gugliotta, NBA All-Star Stephon Marbury, NBA All-Rookie Team 1st Team

References

1996–97 Minnesota Timberwolves season

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