The Minnesota Timberwolves' firing of president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas on Wednesday came after months of evaluation by ownership and high-ranking team officials of the state of Rosas' leadership and the direction of the franchise.
Ownership has listened to a vocal contingent of staffers express concern about the way Rosas conducted his business, sources told The Athletic, and finally came to the conclusion they could not wait any longer to address the situation. Some described Rosas' reign as dysfunctional, with tension rippling through the front office, according to some sources. Outside of it, rival team executives and agents would complain about how Rosas treated relationships and negotiations.
Sachin Gupta, who was executive VP of basketball operations, will now oversee basketball ops, Minnesota announced.
For more details and the full story on why the Timberwolves fired Rosas just days before training camp, read Jon Krawczynski and Shams Charania's story in the Go Deeper section below.
(Photo: Jordan Johnson / NBAE via Getty Images)
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What were the issues with Rosas' leadership?
Prior to the announcement, The Athletic had spent the last several weeks investigating the working environment under Rosas and interviewed numerous sources on the current staff about the situation after learning of mounting discontent. Some said Rosas worked his staff long hours without giving much input into the decision-making process. Others took issue with decisions made on personnel moves and trades, including the light protections on a first-round draft pick that landed them D'Angelo Russell from Golden State, Rosas' signature move.
"It's hard," said one member of the organization who followed Rosas to Minnesota after he was hired. "He's not who I thought he was."
Rosas also had several backers in the organization, who said the current issues they were facing were more related to the pandemic and the stress brought on by the ownership change than Rosas’ leadership style.
What was Rosas' view of the organization under his watch?
While working on the story, The Athletic brought these concerns to Rosas, who vehemently disputed them. He denied that there were any overwhelming problems with the culture of the front office and said he worked hard to foster an environment of collaboration and diversity.
"There's going to be some growing pains, there's going to be some challenges, there's going to be some misdirection we have to address," Rosas said several weeks ago. "I put our program and our group next to anybody's. Once the results show, they will understand the work that went into it and the decisions that had to be made. That's what we're working towards."
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Did new ownership play a role?
Many of the complaints reached longtime owner Glen Taylor as well as Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez, the newly minted minority owners. There were major concerns about what they were hearing, sources said, and a belief among some in the organization that the working environment that was created by the tension was not sustainable and ran counter to the visions they have for how things should be run.