The Minnesota Timberwolves’ early-2000s rise came with Kevin Garnett front and center, but the franchise never fully solved the harder problem: how to build enough around him. That failure came into sharp focus after the Joe Smith salary cap scheme, a mess that didn’t just bring penalties - it may have robbed Minnesota of a chance to land Tony Parker and keep Garnett’s window open longer.
The setup began in 1999, when Smith and the Wolves struck a series of under-the-table agreements. Smith, who had averaged 13.7 points and 8.2 rebounds in his first season in Minnesota in 1998-99, agreed to three straight one-year deals below market value so he could remain with the team while it tried to assemble a more complete roster. Those contracts were reportedly worth between $1.75 million and $2.5 million, with the expectation that the team would later use his Bird Rights to sign him to a seven-year, $86 million extension.
Minnesota may not have been alone in trying to work around the rules, but it was the one that got exposed. A 2014 report by Eric Goldman of Cainus Hoopus detailed how Smith’s agent, Andy Miller, left his sports agency to launch his own firm and brought Smith and Garnett with him as his first clients. Eric Fleisher, who owned the agency Miller departed, responded with a lawsuit, and written proof of the agreement surfaced during the case before being turned over to the NBA.
That discovery triggered one of the harshest punishments in league history. Then-commissioner David Stern voided all of Smith’s contracts, fined the Timberwolves $3.5 million, suspended owner Glen Taylor for a year and forced Kevin McHale to take a one-year leave of absence.
Minnesota also lost five straight first-round picks from 2001 through 2005. The league later gave back the team’s 2003 and 2005 selections, but the damage was already done.
One of the biggest casualties was the 2001 draft. The Wolves finished 47-35 that season, which would have put them in position to pick 18th.
Tony Parker went 28th to the San Antonio Spurs, though Boston was reportedly close at No. 21, which means Minnesota at 18 could have very realistically been in the mix. Instead, the Wolves never got the shot.
Parker went on to become part of a Spurs core with Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili that won four NBA championships. There’s no way to know whether he would have had the same success in Minnesota, but he almost certainly would have filled the point guard role the Wolves were trying to solve next to Garnett.
The fit makes too much sense not to picture. Under Flip Saunders, Parker’s downhill creation could have fed Garnett’s mid-range game and opened up the pick-and-roll in a way that suited both stars. Garnett’s defense would have covered for Parker, and together they might have given Minnesota a real title path - and possibly changed the course of Garnett’s future, including his 2007 trade to the Boston Celtics.
Instead, the Wolves tried to patch things together by trading for Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell before the 2003-04 season. That group delivered Garnett’s MVP season and a trip to the Western Conference Finals, but it lasted only one year before the roster aged out and the franchise slipped back into the late-2000s and most of the 2010s.
Smith eventually returned to Minnesota for two more seasons before being dealt to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Cassell trade, making the whole episode even harder to swallow for a franchise that has spent plenty of time undercutting itself. And with the Los Angeles Clippers now in the news for a different salary cap circumvention case involving Kawhi Leonard, Timberwolves fans may be wondering whether Adam Silver will be as severe with a big-market team as Stern was with Minnesota.
In Other News...
Chris Finch Just Sent A Powerful Message About Anthony Edwards
Chris Finch recently revisited one of the more delicate moments of the Timberwolves playoff run, and his reflection said plenty about where things stand between coach and star. On the Road Trippin podcast, Finch addressed his public criticism of Anthony Edwards after Game 1 of the 2025 semifinals against the Warriors, acknowledging afterward that putting that message out there was unnecessary. It was the kind of candid admission that underscored both the pressure of the moment and the trust that has quietly grown between the two.
Edwards, for his part, answered in the way Minnesota needed, turning the page and playing well the rest of the series. Finchs regret also highlighted something bigger for the Timberwolves: the relationship has been strong enough to survive an awkward public flashpoint and still keep Edwards moving forward as a leader and player. For a team that leans so heavily on its franchise cornerstone, that kind of coach-player connection matters just as much as any in-game adjustment. [Read more 🡒]
Chris Finch Just Framed Last Season As A Turning Point For Wolves
The Timberwolves have now made the playoffs four seasons in a row and won a postseason series for the third straight year, but Chris Finch is not dressing up what came before that run as smooth sailing. He pointed to a season that tested the group in plenty of ways, from moodiness and injuries to off-court distractions that hung around the team, even as Minnesota still found enough resilience to stay in the hunt and eventually upset Denver in the first round.
Finchs point is bigger than a single playoff result. If last season really was a turning point, then the Wolves are trying to carry the lessons from a difficult year into the next one, and the front office has already acted on that idea by making roster changes, including the trade for LaMelo Ball. The talent is there, but the real question now is whether Minnesota can turn a hard-earned postseason edge into something more stable when the next challenge arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Timberwolves Have A Frontcourt Problem Ayo Dosunmu Shouldn't Have To Solve
The Timberwolves spent the offseason reshaping their roster around the backcourt, bringing in LaMelo Ball to bolster the guard rotation and signing Ayo Dosunmu to a five-year contract. Dosunmu gives Minnesota another ball-handler with versatility and shooting, and he looks like a real part of the long-term plan rather than a movable piece for quick help.
Still, the frontcourt remains the more obvious concern after the departures of Julius Randle and Naz Reid left the Wolves thinner at power forward. It is the kind of hole that can tempt a team to use whatever assets it has left, but Dosunmu does not appear to be among them, even if the roster balance would be easier to solve if Minnesota had more options in the frontcourt. [Read more 🡒]