As the Minnesota Timberwolves continue to rebuild, one of the things that they haven't been able to do is to sign or keep a star player long-term. Yes, they have promising talents in Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, but they haven't been good enough to lead the team past the first round of the playoffs. They also weren't able to hold onto Jimmy Butler, whom they traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in November of last year.

Gersson Rosas, the new President of Basketball Operations of the Timberwolves, will be tasked to turn the franchise's fortunes around. However, he explained how difficult it is to get top-tier talent, in his interview with The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski.

“The reality is that if you want to win, you want to have success, you need high-end, special players. They’re hard to acquire. You have to pay a strong premium for them. And if you don’t have the resources, you don’t have the flexibility, you don’t have the assets, you’re not going to be in play.”

Rosas understands that Minnesota is a small market team and that they wouldn't be the priority of most marquee free agents in the future.

“To me, you’re going to get a lot of no’s before you get the yes. It happened to us in Houston. You see it around the league. You have to be comfortable with that. You’ve got to realize that’s part of the process and as you build there’s going to be some disappointments. But that’s what makes the success so sweet in that you did the right things, built up an opportunity to put yourselves in position to be successful.”

The veteran NBA executive remains optimistic that Minnesota will be able to turn Minnesota into a contender, but he added that it won't be easy. He even shared his experience with the Houston Rockets, where he also worked as a front office executive for more than a decade.

“Every great player we acquired in Houston took multiple efforts. It was not the first time. That’s something that I take to heart. It’s going to happen here in Minnesota with the Timberwolves as well. The philosophy, the approach, the execution is going to be the same. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes sacrifice and it takes hard decisions. That’s the reality of our life and where we’re at.”

That's one of the main reasons why the Timberwolves hired Rosas. They believe in his capabilities as an executive, and even though they knew that making the team a contender will take time, they are putting their trust in him, mainly because he hasn't given them false expectations.

“I always say this, the big moves don’t just show up on your doorstep to execute. The big moves come because you’ve done all the little things every day right and put yourself in a position so you can take advantage of them. That’s the key for us. You’ve got to be prepared. You’ve got to be flexible.”