The Minnesota Timberwolves just pulled a stunner, firing president Gersson Rosas a week before training camp. The timing of this move is totally bonkers given Rosas was allowed to fire and hire a new head coach last season and then executed an entire offseason full of moves ahead of the 2021-22 campaign.
Well, according to multiple Timberwolves insiders, tension had been building in the organization for a while. Instead of letting it fester into the season, the decision was made to pull the plug now:
So while this may seem like a surprise, this has been building internally with the Wolves for a while.
— Chris Hine (@ChristopherHine) September 22, 2021
Both of us tried to tell folks it wasn’t the Kumbaya family feel so many wanted to believe. Wonder if Gers will even get the $$ left on his deal?!? Oh, so much to unpack!!
— Darren Wolfson (@DWolfsonKSTP) September 22, 2021
Furthermore, with new ownership coming in place in the form of Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore, they could very well be looking to make a big splash hire:
Word has been out there for many months that Alex Rodriguez + Marc Lore want to hire a “top 5” executive to run basketball operations. The problem was availability.
Around the NBA, Current Wolves executive Sachin Gupta is regarded as one of the most attractive available options https://t.co/xYzbVs3Fyd
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) September 22, 2021
While this all may be true, it's still wild that Rosas was allowed to lead this entire offseason before the decision was made to fire him. Rosas was also reportedly involved in Ben Simmons trade negotiations, so we'll see what happens with that situation now.
Furthermore, it sure seems as if Karl-Anthony Towns and Timberwolves players were blindsided by this. KAT took to Twitter immediately after the news broke and expressed his disbelief with the move. That's not a good sign when your best player is taking issue with what happened.
This doesn't necessarily mean KAT is going to ask for a trade or anything, but the pressure is really on now. Sachin Gupta is taking over as the interim president of basketball operations, per multiple reports, but there will be a search done for a possible full-time replacement. Gupta could very well wind up staying in the job, though Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer also threw out Elton Brand as a name to keep an eye on.
The Timberwolves went 23-49 last season and are looking to make a big jump behind a promising young core in 2021-22. This is quite a way to start the new campaign.
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