https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all-time_NBA_win%E2%80%93loss_records

The Timberwolves and Nets have been moving in opposite directions of late, and the Wolves finally have the chance to free themselves of an obscure dubious distinction. Last season, the Timberwolves finished with 49 wins, while the Nets had 20.

The Timberwolves will play seven games in October, while the Nets will play just 5.

https://www.nba.com/timberwolves/schedule

https://www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/bkn/seasontype/2

The soonest that the Timberwolves could overtake the Nets is October 25th, after which point both teams will have played three games.

If the Timberwolves win their first three and the Nets lose their first three, a solid possibility, the Timberwolves will have won 42.14% of their games all-time (1,248 out of 2,961), and the Nets will have won 42.13% (1,⁷⁰⁰⁄₄,035).

This is counting only NBA records, as the Nets had very successful years in another league, the ABA, with Dr. J.

If you’re wondering why the Timberwolves took over the worst record a decade ago and have had it ever since despite being good for half of the time in between, the answer is the Clippers.

That franchise, around since 1970, had been by far the worst in league history for years, before pulling themselves up by their boostraps and improving through fair and honorable means. They might now be another one to watch on this list long-term currently at 42.8%.

After the 2014-2015 season, the Clippers held a 38.9% winning percentage, and the Timberwolves were at 39.3%.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=timberwolves+all-time+record+1970-2015

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=clippers+all-time+record+1970-2015

I didn’t pinpoint the exact date (probably the thing to do next), but the Clippers surpassed them the next season in early 2016, and never lost their advantage again.

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=clippers+all-time+record+1970-2016

https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask?q=timberwolves+all-time+record+1970-2016

AccomplishedBake8351

51 | 5 hours ago

What about the kings

Known-Peak212 [OP]

18 | 5 hours ago

They’re actually in 23rd, although the last 20 years definitely haven’t helped

AccomplishedBake8351

6 | 5 hours ago

Only if you include non sac years

Known-Peak212 [OP]

8 | 5 hours ago

For this stat and the Clippers it’s also including their non L.A. years

TheUsualQuestions

69 | 5 hours ago

Kings do bad then amazing randomly then bad again then amazing randomly then bad again, we’re just in a particularly long bad period

ChemBro93 | TOR

36 | 5 hours ago

I loved the “light the beam” era kings. That shit was fun.

ArbitraryLettersXYZ

71 | 5 hours ago

“Era” doing a lot of work there.

guimontag

5 | 4 hours ago

Wasn’t that like 2 seasons lol? Maybe even just one?

Resident_Durian_478 | SAS

7 | 4 hours ago

It was organic hype that you don’t see much, a fun time indeed, it was a great gimmick

tearyouapartj | DEN

1 | 2 hours ago

Did they stop doing that? Why? They were just like “hey we suck now so let’s stop celebrating wins with this popular gimmick”?

[deleted]

0 | 4 hours ago

[deleted]

SacKing13 | SAC

3 | 4 hours ago

Dude why you trying so hard to give us another L come on man 😂

AccomplishedBake8351

6 | 4 hours ago

I like our suffering to mean something

SacKing13 | SAC

2 | 4 hours ago

Guess we gotta take what we can get haha

AutographedSnorkel | HOU

2 | 4 hours ago

The Kings were a very competent team in the 50s and 60s, and they had that run in the late 90s/early 2000s. Hell, even during the last 20 years, they’ve never really been a clusterfuck team, just a bad team. Only two 60 loss seasons in the entire team history

AccomplishedBake8351

2 | 4 hours ago

If you just look at the 40+ years in sac they’re at 41%

pahamack | TOR

1 | 4 hours ago

dont they have a championship?

AccomplishedBake8351

4 | 4 hours ago

Depends on if you think a win in Rochester in the 50s counts or not.

Rochester - Cincinnati- Kansas City - Sacramento

Imo as a kings fan i don’t consider anything pre sac to be a part of our history, except if I can use it to insult the lakers

WrestleBox | MIN

107 | 5 hours ago

Started at the bottom now we’re here. Second from the bottom.

Janderson2494 | MIN

14 | 3 hours ago

Hey we had the worst winning percentage across all of sports not too long ago, I’ll take this win lol

Odoaiden | MIN

383 | 5 hours ago

The pre Gobert timberwolves record, compared to the record after is hilarious

rawspeghetti | BOS

243 | 5 hours ago

The Wolves wasting KG’s prime is the greatest sin in basketball history

Odoaiden | MIN

112 | 5 hours ago

Screw Joe Smith (and the ownership)

KickerofTale | MIN

47 | 5 hours ago

To be fair, KG wanted him on the team too

TinieWenie | MIN

13 | 5 hours ago

I say screw stern. It was a gross over punishment on his end, which was partially walked back, obviously. Even then, pretty strict, especially compared with the recent punishment on the Clippers, who essentially got punished at the end of their misdeeds, whereas wolves hardly benefited in comparison

Sharcbait | MIN

14 | 4 hours ago

There is a lot more layers to “wasting KGs prime” than just a bad FO.

Timing was all wrong for the team to build properly with KG. He got drafted when Rookie deals were shorter, they went from 3 years to 4 right after he was drafted. And it took a little bit for him to really blossom into a star. By the time it was obvious he was a guy to build around he was already getting his 2nd deal and getting off a cheap rookie deal, so they had to let some of the vets around him leave to pay KG. Then KG and Starbury butted heads after the Wolves moved Ray Allen to get Starbury, there are a few coaches that could have salvaged it, but Pop and Phil Jackson were both already employed so it kinda fell apart and the Wolves needed to sell low to keep KG happy. A few years of being a 1st round washout and boom it was time to pay KG a monster deal, Wolves being up against it with the cap, they go all in to get Spree and Cassell, dump most other assets to win NOW, and it was working up until Sam hurt himself doing the big balls dance. That’s fine Wolves will run it back except Spree essentially blackballed himself from the NBA… not really an organization failure just awful luck and poor timing.

Then Joe Smith happened. Yeah… organization failure? Sure, but also a massive crackdown by the league on something that until the Clippers this year, the league intentionally turned a blind eye to.

So no picks, but it is time to pay KG again and he gets a 2nd even MORE monster contract. 65% of the cap is going to KG, current max contracts point to it as the breaking point in the league where they needed to step in. No picks, KG makes all the money, and no good young players because they got moved to get Spreewell and Cassell.

TenaciousDeer

2 | an hour ago

You know how to be the best you have to be lucky AND good?

To be the worst you have to be bad AND unlucky

JMoon33 | Cabo Verde

1 | 25 minutes ago

There is a lot more layers to “wasting KGs prime” than just a bad FO.

Indeed, and there’s a lot more layers to the Wolves doing terribly than just the KG era. They sucked before, they sucked after, they make bad moves after bad moves. Even recently they traded for Randle who sucks when it gets tough, and they lost NAW for nothing. They’ve shot themselves in the foot so often already and are ruining their chance of winning a championship with the Ant Rudy duo they went all in for.

Ok_Chest_1203 | DEN

2 | 4 hours ago

and the one year he had help he led them to the 1 seed only for the help to get injured right before the playoffs

Sharcbait | MIN

7 | 4 hours ago

KG made all the money that needed to get paid go sign good help for him. He was making like 65% of the cap, it is hard to get anyone help on a shoestring budget. The KG deal was pointed to as protecting the teams from themselves when max deals came into place.

YSLAnunoby | TOR

2 | an hour ago

One of the crazy things I’ve learned as a younger person is how wild the deals were back in the 90s compared to how standard they are now. Things like 7 year contracts, MJ making more than the entire team combined at one point, things like Gilbert Arenas and Chris Webber deals along with KG leading to more standard rookie contracts or provisions to retain your young players, etc.

Martim102001

2 | an hour ago

Wym he took like 70% of the cap. No FO could’ve sooved that puzzle

d08lee

2 | 5 hours ago

Celtics fan. Typical

discord_admin1 | MIN

2 | 4 hours ago

I hate to say this but I agree with the Celtics fan

TheZacef | MIN

72 | 5 hours ago

But Luka made an insane 3 over him in the playoffs so he must be trash.

MaskedBirder | PHI

39 | 4 hours ago

Luka could’ve hit that shot over Lu Dort, Dyson Daniels, Ausar Thompson, the most elite perimeter defenders. He was just feeling it in that moment, it was an incredible shot. People are also taking the ability of centers to guard all five positions for granted. That’s not some easy thing

Plants_R_Cool | MIN

34 | 4 hours ago

He cooked the shit out of Kawhi when he was like 20 years old and 0 people started calling Kawhi overrated on defense, and rightfully so because it’s fucking Luka.

Sharcbait | MIN

9 | 3 hours ago

Rudy got Luka taking a stepback 3 moving to his left while still contesting the shot. It was also a 2 point game so it wasn’t as if Luka driving into the paint for a 2 was off the table. Sometimes shots go in, you just gotta try to force them into the ones you want them to take. Good offense will beat good defense 100% of the time.

TofuTofu | NYK

2 | 2 hours ago

Nobody on planet earth can reliably stop Luka Doncic from scoring

EDIT: OK fine maybe Wemby

Haunting_Test_5523

3 | 4 hours ago

Rudy cannot guard all 5 positions. He’s one of the 3 best defenders in the game, but that’s just objectively not something he can do

YSLAnunoby | TOR

3 | 2 hours ago

He is/was actually a good defender for a big switching out to the perimeter and guarding in isolation, problem was that the personnel on the Jazz made him take on so much more load with poor resistance on drives or getting him to switch with nobody to cover inside when the forwards were poor defenders or not big and athletic enough to slide over and protect the rim. Like How Ingles was a decent perimeter defender but wasn’t that long/athletic, Royce O’Neal is 6’5 at SF/PF, and Crowder and Bojan were strong dudes who could body people up but not really sliding well to offer resistance and not that athletic to punch above their size as rim protectors

Islandkid679 | MIN

1 | 2 hours ago

I don’t know why centers are expected to be great perimeter defenders, when they do most of their work near the basket.

genius-baby

-3 | 4 hours ago

Ehhhhh Rudy may be an all time rim protector but he is not an elite defender on the perimeter. It’s wayyy easier to get a big footed 7 footer off balance on a drive cross stepback then any of the guys you mentioned. It never should have resulted in so much slander on Rudy except the fact that he let the switch happen without much resistance. You could even see Jaden McDaniels reaction immediately after the switch and he knew it was not gonna be good

KnowledgePrevious | MIN

9 | 3 hours ago

I mean you can look at Rudy’s numbers on the perimeter, he had the best isolation defense numbers in the league last season.

Of course he’s a giant center so you don’t want to play him on the perimeter all the time, but he’s quite good

Inspiration_Bear | MIN

1 | 2 hours ago

This guy reddits and espns

mnBandR | MIN

-9 | 5 hours ago

Lol one shot?

Zeeron1 | OKC

2 | 4 hours ago

One joke, too

Shepher27 | MIN

3 | 3 hours ago

Pinning it to Gobert despite the wolves going down in wins his first year seems silly.

It’s pre and post Finch and Ant.

YSLAnunoby | TOR

1 | 2 hours ago

Does Rudy get his # retired in Minny

Odoaiden | MIN

1 | 7 minutes ago

Probably not unless we go on a run. He is arguably our 4th best player ever though

TheOneWhosCensored | BOS

1 | 2 hours ago

That doesn’t make any sense, this sub said so many times how that trade was one of the worst in history.

Associ8tedRuffians | MIN

1 | 5 hours ago

What? 99-04 is just as high as 22-26 so far. And you’re ignoring the PatBev year, which actually had a bette record than Gobert’s first year.

Overall, Wolves have three eras: KG/Flip, Ant/Finch, and suckage.

Ok_Hornet_714

17 | 4 hours ago

Counterpoint: During the KG era, the TWolves won a playoff series in only one year (2004)

The current TWolves have won at least one playoff series in 3 consecutive years, and made the Conference Finals twice.

Associ8tedRuffians | MIN

1 | 3 hours ago

The post is about regular season records, so that’s what my comment is about in response to the commenter saying everything with Gobert is different than the rest of the years.

I’m a Wolves fan since KG’s 2nd year, I sure as shit know how the current Wolves have done in the post season is the best they’ve ever done.

bearbrannan | MIN

4 | 4 hours ago

Let’s add playoff win percentage and see how that one pans out..

Associ8tedRuffians | MIN

1 | 3 hours ago

This post is about regular season winning percentage.

You’re not wrong on playoffs, night and day basically Ant/Finch/Gobert years all that matter there.

But the post, and my response to you, are based on regular season records, not post season.

TofuTofu | NYK

1 | 2 hours ago

I prefer to call it the suck age

Kodak333 | ATL

0 | 4 hours ago

You mean the pre Ant record… Ant wore games the year before Rudy was on the team. He’s the driving factor not Rudy

AccomplishedBake8351

88 | 5 hours ago

If you only look at their time in Sacramento (40+ years), they’re at .418 so maybe we should have this prestigious record

CMYGQZ | MEM

54 | 4 hours ago

if you only look at 1 city, the Vancouver Grizzlies is at 22%

PianoJealous307

35 | 4 hours ago

The NBA really did Toronto and Vancouver dirty when the expanded.

Both the Canadian teams were hampered by the NBA’s decision to deny them one of the top five picks in the draft. The teams would not be allowed a top draft pick in the following three seasons, even if they should win the lottery. The teams were also hindered from using their full salary cap the first two season.

Hopefully with the upcoming expansion they will not make the same mistake (they will)

VladimirPutain1 | MIN

14 | 4 hours ago

The league has a vested interest in Vegas’s success so the expansion rules will surely be more favorable than it was for the Canadian teams. The rules weren’t quite as bad for Charlotte as I recall. They probably don’t want the perception of screwing over Seattle (again) as well.

AccomplishedBake8351

3 | 4 hours ago

True, but that was 6 years vs the kings being in sac for 40+

Wolvescast

41 | 5 hours ago

Tim Duncan had more career wins than the Wolves franchise until like two seasons ago

CurrentRoster | WAS

15 | 4 hours ago

thanks to randle #orangejulius

Korachof

9 | 4 hours ago

Can you imagine how bad it would be if the Timberwolves botched the 1995 draft, or if the 4 teams before them took KG?

jak_d_ripr

4 | 2 hours ago

Oh my God, I hadn’t even considered that The Timberwolves horrific win percentage was including all those playoff appearances KG carried them to. Good lord, talk about a long suffering fanbase.

ANTfanclub

27 | 5 hours ago

As a life long Wolves fan, bittersweet letting this one go…. it’s time, but it also adds so much of a dramatic flare when I am yapping to my wife about what we have been through as a franchise. It was sort of a badge of honor during the last 5 years, showing how much Ant/Gobert has turned around this franchise

Wakkawipeout | MIN

7 | 3 hours ago

Also a long time Wolves fan and ain’t nothing bittersweet about it. Just sweet 😄 I don’t want to go back in the dungeon

Habefiet | MIN

4 | 3 hours ago

Would have been really amazing to win a chip while we still had this record tho

ANTfanclub

1 | 21 minutes ago

100%

Like the Bucs. I think they have the worst NFL record and have won 2 super bowls. The opposite of the Vikings 😭

JeanRalfio | MIN

4 | 2 hours ago

I use the logo from the Love years as my flair on here as a badge of honor and to remember what we went through.

ThrowawayNYCJ | BKN

29 | 5 hours ago

I just dropped to my knees at my local Trader Joe’s

kennypovv | GSW

14 | 5 hours ago

Would be hilarious if Brooklyn outperforms Wolves just this season to spoil the stat

ionospherermutt | MIN

10 | 4 hours ago

It’s also interesting to note that the modern Hornets have a much worse record than us, but because they include the win loss record of the old Charlotte Hornets from the 90s despite thst being the team that moved to New Orleans and became the Pelicans, they are ahead of us too

RFFF1996 | OKC

1 | a minute ago

I am fine with the methodology tho, otherwise thinghs get very weird fast

[For example the clippers franchise technically are the bill russel era celtics lmao]

CriticalTemporary662 | MIN

9 | 5 hours ago

Stand up now and face the sun

notafan1

5 | 5 hours ago

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F85xwfhtzidcb1.jpg

CantaloupeCamper | MIN

3 | 5 hours ago

Eatadick_pam | MIN

3 | 5 hours ago

Don’t ruin this for us

ThaNotoriousBLT | TOR

3 | 4 hours ago

This is quality off season content

jimmy_tanner | UTA

11 | 5 hours ago

Can’t wait for the Clippers to reclaim their title in a few years

sdeezy4

8 | 5 hours ago

We all know it’s coming lol

ChemBro93 | TOR

5 | 5 hours ago

The 2030s will not be kind to the clippers.

LazerWeazel | LAC

0 | 4 hours ago

lmao can’t wait for the Clippers to beat that Jazz booty again this year.

jimmy_tanner | UTA

4 | 3 hours ago

RemindMe! 47 days

FoopaSkin

2 | 4 hours ago

“improving through fair and honorable means” 💀

99LedBalloons | MIN

2 | 2 hours ago

Hang the banner

Feeling_Anteater_389 | CHA

3 | 4 hours ago

If San Antonio and Boston win 60 and 50 games, respectively, the Spurs will pass Boston as the highest winning percentage of any franchise all-time.

Pickleskennedy1

0 | 3 hours ago

The Spurs only just lost that record in 2024-2025, during Wemby’s second year

I_Set_3_Alarms | BOS

2 | 5 hours ago

Nets deserve it for leaving New Jersey

lbutler1234 | United States

5 | 4 hours ago

Ahhh a franchise moved from a place that couldn’t sell out finals games to one of the best arenas in the ass. ahhh the humanity.

Affectionate-Art9780 | BKN

1 | an hour ago

Was that really necessary?

rook119

2 | 5 hours ago

Somehow the Nets managed to become little brother to the NY Liberty. Send them to Hartford.

OpeDefinitely | IND

0 | 4 hours ago

and change their name to the suns!

-XanderCrews- | MIN

1 | an hour ago

I don’t like how assured you are of this. Bad juju

Nate_Shoober | SAS

1 | an hour ago

Spurs also have a shot at passing the Celtics for the best record.

Right now Celtics are at a 59.75% win, Spurs are at 59.56% win. If both teams go around their over/unders this season (Spurs at 60 wins, Celtics at 52 wins) it will be Spurs at 59.83%, Celtics at 59.80%

whater39

0 | 5 hours ago

Vancouver Grizzlies win percentage was 22% (101-359). With their most wins being 23.

Memphis Grizzlies have had less the.23 wins (non lockout seasons) three times.

Within the 25-45 days, the Minnesota Timberwolves, for the first time in more than a decade, will likely not have the worst all-time win/loss record of any active NBA franchise. They have won 42.08% of their games all-time (since 1989), while the Nets are down to 42.21% (since 1977)