Jarrett Culver, formerly of the Minnesota Timberwolves
Getty
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 27: Jarrett Culver #23 of the Minnesota Timberwolves plays the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on December 27, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty aImages License Agreement. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images)
Notwithstanding the fact that they are currently on a three-game winning streak, the Minnesota Timberwolves are not having the 2025-26 NBA season that they were hoping for. They are sixth in the Western Conference with a 30-19 record, on course for near-enough exactly the same finish as last season’s 49-33 sixth seed when they were instead hoping and/or expecting to build on that.
Nonetheless, it should never be forgotten how much of a relative disappointment this is. The Timberwolves for so long were the embodiment of mediocrity, missing the postseason nigh-on every season and consistently striking out with the resultant high draft picks that were supposed to reverse their fortunes. They used to have to pin their hopes onto the Jarrett Culver types. But after several false starts, Culver at least has finally found the best basketball groove of his life.
Having failed to make an NBA roster in each of the last two seasons, Culver has left American shores for the first time in his playing career, and has signed in Japan’s B League (which confusingly is the name of their top league). And as of today, the former Timberwolves prospect is leading the Asian nation in scoring.
Culver Thriving With Free Reign
Rather than try for a training camp contract, in June 2025, Culver signed with the Sendai 89ers, his first roster spot outside the NBA or G League. It is going well.
During the early portion of the 2025–26 B League season, Culver has assumed a central scoring and playmaking role for the 89ers, as most American imports do. He has posted an average of 25.7 points per game, leading the league in scoring by two points per game, alongside posting 6.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game as the 89ers’ go-to guy. The Japanese league does not have the highest domestic talent level, but does attract a good quality of import, and while they are usually big men, there exists plenty of scope and offensive freedom for any premium athletic wings such as he.
Culver was selected sixth overall in the 2019 NBA Draft out of Texas Tech by the Phoenix Suns largely on account of that athletic profile, before being re-traded to the Timberwolves in a deal for Dario Saric and the rights to Cameron Johnson, the #11 pick in the same draft. Neither the pick nor the trade has aged well. Johnson has become a quality NBA player, and Saric is still around in a limited form, while Culver’s best season was his first. And even that was not very good.
Unmistakably A Timberwolves Draft Bust
Over the first four seasons of his NBA career, Culver appeared in 144 NBA regular-season games for Minnesota, the Memphis Grizzlies (to whom he was traded after his third season for Patrick Beverley) and the Atlanta Hawks (with whom he spent half of the 2022-23 season on a two-way contract). Across that span, he averaged 6.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 17.2 minutes per game, but did so with poor shooting splits of .401/.276/.509. As above, Culver’s best season was the 9.2 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game he posted as a rookie starter, but as the Timberwolves around him improved, he did not.
Culver spent the 2024–25 season with the Osceola Magic in the G League, where he posted averages of 13.5 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game on .441/.330/.663 shooting in 49 games without ever getting another NBA call-up, and seemingly has given up on ever getting one. As evidenced by the shooting percentages, Culver never found a shot profile at the NBA level, and although his defensive impact was better, he lost the wing defensive specialist role on the Timberwolves to Josh Okogie.
Supposedly, the Wolves’ move to trade up was done with Darius Garland in mind, only to be scuppered when Garland was selected fifth overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he remains. Culver, by contrast, was never an average NBA player and is now out of chances, continuously pushed down by younger prospects. He has, however, finally found his game, used his athletic advantages and green light, and is playing the best basketball of his life. He just had to go to Japan to do it.