Minnesota hosts Detroit at Target Center for its fourth preseason game, with the roster that broke camp still intact. Tonight's lineup traces back to a 1994 ownership rescue, a string of defining trades, and a Finals chase that still has no ending.
A Franchise Almost Lost
The Timberwolves nearly left Minnesota in 1994, when a sale to New Orleans was stopped only after Edward Villaume raised $88.5 million and recruited Glen Taylor as lead investor. Taylor owned the team for three decades, through the Kevin Garnett era and into Anthony Edwards' rise, before selling to Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore for $1.5 billion in a deal the NBA board approved in June 2025. The franchise facing Detroit tonight exists because of that 1994 rescue.
Trades That Remade It
Minnesota's biggest eras have arrived through trades, not patience. The 1996 deal that sent Ray Allen's rights to Milwaukee for Stephon Marbury paired him with 1995 draftee Kevin Garnett and launched eight straight playoff trips. This July 10, the Timberwolves made their boldest swing since the Garnett years, acquiring LaMelo Ball and Josh Green in a four-team trade that sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid and Mouhamadou Gueye to Charlotte. That remade roster opened preseason 2-1 before tonight's game against Detroit.
Gobert's Window, Unclosed
Rudy Gobert, a four-time Defensive Player of the Year, still anchors the defense at 34, the identity Minnesota built after drafting Garnett in 1995. The playoff drought that followed Garnett's 2007 trade to Boston lasted fourteen years, ending in 2018, and Anthony Edwards' arrival as the No. 1 pick in 2020 paired with Chris Finch's 2021 hiring has since produced four straight playoff trips and two Western Conference finals runs. Minnesota has still never reached the NBA Finals, and last season's run stopped a round earlier, a 4-2 conference semifinal loss to San Antonio. Detroit is one more preseason stop on the way to finding out if this is the year that changes.
Have the Timberwolves ever reached the NBA Finals?
No. Minnesota has reached the Western Conference finals three times, in 2004, 2024 and 2025, but has never advanced to the Finals.
Why did the Timberwolves get LaMelo Ball?
Minnesota acquired Ball along with Josh Green in a four-team trade on July 10, 2026, that sent Julius Randle to Brooklyn and Naz Reid and Mouhamadou Gueye to Charlotte, the franchise's largest backcourt shakeup since the Garnett-era trades.
