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In 1995, the Minnesota Timberwolves selected Kevin Garnett in the draft, and Flip Saunders became coach. Transformations were abound for the Minnesota Timberwolves as Christian Laettner was traded along with Sean Rooks to the Atlanta Hawks for Andrew Lang and Spud Webb. In addition, first round pick Donyell Marshall was traded the earlier season for Golden State Warriors' forward Tom Gugliotta, who was previously traded himself from Washington for Chris Webber. These trades smoothed the way for rookie Kevin Garnett to become the go-to player inside. Garnett went on to average 10.4 ppg in his rookie season as the T-Wolves finished in 5th place with a 26-56 record.
In addition the T-Wolves found another NBA star player in the draft as they traded with the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to Stephon Marbury, the 4th overall pick. The addition of Marbury had a constructive effect on the whole team, as Kevin Garnett and Tom Gugliotta became the first Wolves to be selected to the All-Star team. Gugliotta and Garnett led the Timberwolves in scoring as the team made the NBA playoffs for the first time in franchise history with a record of 40-42. However, in the playoffs the Minnesota Timberwolves made a rapid exit as they were swept by the Houston Rockets in 3 straight games. The T-Wolves also determined to change their image by changing their team logo and colors, adding black to the team colors and changing the original logo with a logo featuring a snarling wolf looming over a field of trees. While at the time the new logo was roundly criticized in the Twin Cities sports media, its appearance accompanied a much improved product on the court, so criticism was relatively short-lived.
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