The 1995–96 NBA season was the Timberwolves' 7th season in the National Basketball Association. In the 1995 NBA draft, the Timberwolves selected high school star Kevin Garnett with the fifth pick, and signed free agent Terry Porter while re-signing Sam Mitchell during the offseason. The Timberwolves got off to a bad start losing nine of their first ten games. Head coach Bill Blair was fired after a 6–14 start, and was replaced with Flip Saunders. Midway through the season, Christian Laettner and Sean Rooks were traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Andrew Lang and Spud Webb. Despite posting an 8–8 record in March, the Timberwolves finished fifth in the Midwest Division with a 26–56 record, missing the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season. Following the season, Isaiah Rider who dealt with off-the-court troubles was traded to the Portland Trail Blazers, Lang signed as a free agent with the Milwaukee Bucks and Webb was released.

In Garnett's rookie season, the Timberwolves were in the midst of a transition phase; they replaced Bill Blair with Flip Saunders as head coach early in the season and made several trades. Garnett initially came off the bench in his rookie year, but moved into the starting lineup soon after Saunders became head coach. In his rookie year, Garnett and fellow newcomer Tom Gugliotta carried the scoring load. Garnett did not immediately leap to stardom as later prep-to-pro prospects such as Amar'e Stoudemire, LeBron James, and Dwight Howard would, but he did have a very respectable rookie year. He averaged 10.4 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game and was voted into the All-Rookie Second Team. Despite having some promising players, the Timberwolves suffered through their seventh consecutive sub-30 win season and failed to make the playoffs. At the time Garnett was the youngest NBA player in history at 19 years and 11 months of age.

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