The 1989–90 Minnesota Timberwolves season was the inaugural season for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the National Basketball Association. Nearly 30 years after the Lakers left Minneapolis, Minnesota to relocate to Los Angeles, California, the NBA returned to Minnesota with an expansion team known as the "Timberwolves"; the Orlando Magic also joined the NBA in 1989 via expansion.

Season summary

Off-season The Timberwolves revealed their new primary logo, adding blue, green, white and silver to their color scheme; the team's primary logo featured a blue and white wolf with green eyes, in front of a silver basketball with blue seams surrounded by a green outline, and above the state name "Minnesota" in green letters and the team name "Timberwolves" in blue letters. The team also revealed new white home uniforms, and new blue road uniforms; both uniforms featured a blue, white and green trim, and the team's primary logo on the left and right legs of their shorts. The team's new primary logo, and new uniforms would both remain in use until 1996. For their inaugural season, the Timberwolves played their home games at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis, which was home to the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, and also home to the MLB's Minnesota Twins.

In the 1989 NBA expansion draft, the Timberwolves selected veteran players like Rick Mahorn, Tyrone Corbin, Steve Johnson, Brad Lohaus and Scott Roth. The team also signed free agents, Tony Campbell, who won an NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1988 NBA Finals, and rookie small forward Sam Mitchell out of Mercer University; Mitchell was drafted by the Houston Rockets as a third-round draft pick in the 1985 NBA draft, but was released to free agency during the preseason, and previously played overseas in France, and in the Continental Basketball Association. Other free agents included Tod Murphy, who previously played overseas in Spain, and Sidney Lowe.

However, Mahorn never played for the Timberwolves due to a contract dispute, and was later on traded to the Philadelphia 76ers; Mahorn previously won a championship with the Detroit Pistons, in which they defeated the Los Angeles Lakers in a four-game sweep in the 1989 NBA Finals. The Timberwolves received the tenth overall pick in the 1989 NBA draft, and selected point guard Pooh Richardson from the University of California, Los Angeles, and also hired Bill Musselman as their first ever head coach.

Regular season The Timberwolves made their NBA regular season debut on November 3, 1989, in which the team lost to the Seattle SuperSonics on the road, 106–94 at the Seattle Center Coliseum; off the bench, Corbin led the team with 20 points and 8 rebounds, while Roth contributed 19 points. Five days later on November 8, the team made their home debut at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, losing to the Chicago Bulls by a score of 96–84, in front of 35,427 fans in attendance; All-Star guard Michael Jordan led the Bulls with 45 points, while Campbell led the Timberwolves with a double-double of 31 points and 10 rebounds. Just two nights later on November 10, the Timberwolves won their first ever game in franchise history, defeating the 76ers at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in overtime, 125–118; Campbell finished with 38 points, while Corbin posted a double-double of 36 points and 13 rebounds, and Roth added 20 points off the bench.

The Timberwolves struggled losing 11 of their first 13 games of the regular season, which included a seven-game losing streak in November. The team posted two nine-game losing streaks between December and January, and later on held a 10–36 record at the All-Star break. At mid-season, the team traded Lohaus to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for former University of Minnesota center, Randy Breuer. The Timberwolves lost eight of their final nine games, and finished their inaugural season in sixth place in the Midwest Division with a record of 22 wins and 60 losses.

Campbell led the Timberwolves in scoring, averaging 23.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game, while Corbin averaged 14.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 2.1 steals per game, and Mitchell provided the team with 12.7 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, reaching 20 or more points on 14 occasions as a 26 year-old rookie. In addition, Richardson contributed 11.4 points, 6.8 assists, and 1.6 steals per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, while Breuer provided with 10.2 points, 5.7 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game in 51 games after the trade, and Murphy averaged 8.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Meanwhile, Roth contributed 6.8 points per game, and Lowe provided with 2.3 points and 4.2 assists per game, but struggled as he only shot .319 in field-goal percentage.

Campbell finished in third place in Most Improved Player voting, while Musselman finished in sixth place in Coach of the Year voting. The Timberwolves led the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 1,072,572 at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome during the regular season.

Aftermath Following the season, Roth was released to free agency, and Lowe retired.

Draft picks

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 10 Pooh Richardson PG UCLA 2 34 Gary Leonard C Missouri 2 38 Doug West SG Villanova

Roster

NBA expansion draft

Prior to the 1989 NBA draft, the NBA held a coin toss between the Timberwolves and the other new expansion team, the Orlando Magic, to determine their order for the NBA draft and the expansion draft. The Magic won the coin toss and chose to have the first pick in the expansion draft and pick 11th in the NBA draft, while the Timberwolves picked second in the expansion draft and 10th in the NBA draft.

The previous season's expansion teams, the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat, were not involved in this year's expansion draft and did not lose any player.

Pick Player Position Nationality Previous team 2 Rick Mahorn F/C Detroit Pistons 4 Tyrone Corbin G/F Phoenix Suns 6 Steve Johnson F/C Portland Trail Blazers 8 Brad Lohaus F/C Sacramento Kings 10 David Rivers G Los Angeles Lakers 12 Mark Davis G/F Milwaukee Bucks 14 Scott Roth F San Antonio Spurs 16 Shelton Jones F Philadelphia 76ers 18 Eric White F Los Angeles Clippers 20 Maurice Martin G/F Denver Nuggets 22 Gunther Behnke C Cleveland Cavaliers

Regular season

Standings

Game log

Player statistics

Regular season PlayerSG82 81 3,164 451 213 111 31 1,903 38.6 5.5 2.6 1.4 .4 23.2SF82 80 3,011 604 216 175 41 1,203 36.7 7.4 2.6 2.1 .5 14.7C82 59 2,493 564 106 76 60 680 30.4 6.9 1.3 .9 .7 8.3PG82 48 2,581 217 554 133 25 938 31.5 2.6 6.8 1.6 .3 11.4PG 80 38 1,744 163 337 73 4 187 21.8 2.0 4.2 .9 .1 2.3PF 80 30 2,414 462 89 66 54 1,012 30.2 5.8 1.1 .8 .7 12.7SF 71 3 1,061 112 115 51 6 486 14.9 1.6 1.6 .7 .1 6.8SF 66 0 746 137 43 32 8 387 11.3 2.1 .7 .5 .1 5.9SG 52 0 378 70 18 10 6 135 7.3 1.3 .3 .2 .1 2.6†C 51 47 1,325 290 84 33 75 518 26.0 5.7 1.6 .6 1.5 10.2†PF 28 24 590 110 62 14 22 210 21.1 3.9 2.2 .5 .8 7.5C 22 0 127 27 1 3 9 32 5.8 1.2 .0 .1 .4 1.5†PF 14 0 113 19 1 6 3 47 8.1 1.4 .1 .4 .2 3.4SF 11 0 91 20 4 6 0 65 8.3 1.8 .4 .5 .0 5.9†C 4 0 17 3 1 0 0 0 4.3 .8 .3 .0 .0 .0

Awards and honors Pooh Richardson, NBA All-Rookie Team

References