What is Gersson Rosas doing?

[Klomp]

Are Minnesota fans really upset he didn't agree to pay Tyus Jones $8M a year to be a backup?

It seems pretty split. I think most understand why, but some look at our subpar PG depth and I think the fact that Tyus is a local boy plays a role in the opinions.

[AssistRubio]

Are Minnesota fans really upset he didn't agree to pay Tyus Jones $8M a year to be a backup?

It seems pretty split. I think most understand why, but some look at our subpar PG depth and I think the fact that Tyus is a local boy plays a role in the opinions.

According to Jon Krawcysnki, Wolves offered Jones a four year deal starting at 4.2 mil, final year was non guaranteed.

That's pathetic. Would have been a better look to not even offer him a contract.

[Macwolf527]

As a Wolves's fan, I'm not really bothered by the choice to let Tyus go. I like Tyus as a player, but he's slow, limited wingspan, and not a great shooter. He's the perfect glue guy, but until you have all the right pieces in place, glue is not necessary, and could prevent you from getting a piece. The rest of the deals were outside of Gersson's control. Who expected Cleveland to draft Garland with Sexton on the roster already. Who expected Golden State to jump in and grab Russell and for Russell to choose to go there. Brooklyn held the cards on Russell because he was restricted, so naturally they wanted to work with Golden State to help their own situation with Durant.

Gersson's slow, steady and cautious approach is what's needed until you know fully what you're working with. This team will be very different with so many players leaving. The systems will be different. So it makes no sense to mortgage valuable cap space on players who don't move the needle either way. Tyus does not move the needle. It's just a FACT!

[AbeVigodaLive]

I'm still amazed why people are still grouping Wiggins and KAT together at this point.

Why?

The two players are nothing alike, and it shows with one look at their pages at basketballreference.com... or by watching one Wolves game.

I grouped them because they are easily the two biggest reasons that the team underachieves for its talent level.

Either or both of them going from inconsistent to consistently elite makes way more of a difference than Tyus Jones or fringe roster moves. Getting there feels like another leap forward for KAT, and probably two leaps forward for Wiggins.

You buried the lead. But even that doesn't go far enough. It might be one leap for KAT... but it's 3 or 4 or 5 for the regressing Wiggins. Consider:

24.4 ppg / 12.4 reb / 3.4 ast / 51.8% fg / 40.0 % 3fg / 83.6% ft / 26.3 PER / 5.7 VORP (and he's shown steady improvement)
vs.
18.1 ppg / 4.8 reb / 2.5 ast / 41.2% fg / 33.9% 3fg / 69.9% ft / 12.4 PER / - 0.6 VORP (and he's regressed)

Now do you see why it's an insult to KAT to compare the two guys... in any way other than their draft spot? Would you have done the same in the same way for Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz when they were together in Philadelphia?

[AbeVigodaLive]

He literally hasn't done a single thing right since taking over for the Wolves.

He swung and missed on trading up for Garland.
He swung and missed on acquiring D'Angelo Russell. Which in return wasted our entire FA period with not being able to acquire a single meaningful player.
Now just let an asset like Tyus Jones walk for nothing.

What in the world is he doing?

You have no clue. Rosas is getting the Wolves in a position to be a player in FA next summer and the following summer. Look at the deals he signed, mostly short term. He let Tyus walk because the guy doesn't move the needle and would eat $9M in cap space. Also, he did NOT trade up for Garland. He was interested in Garland at #5 but they wanted #11 and Covington (who's a needle moving player on a friendly deal). That's what has been widely reported. He knew Saric was going to get a bigger cap eating deal next summer and he's another guy that doesn't move the needle. So trading Saric was a win.

Rosas is doing a great job!

Maybe. Time will tell.

But he'll learn quickly that chasing FA in Minnesota is a far cry from chasing them in Houston. Landing a difference-making FA would be unprecedented.

Hockey town + worst NBA franchise (historically) + COLD! + blah city for young millionaire athletes + no history + "flyover" country, et al is not an easy sell. The best bet is to hope that Towns is one helluva good friend to somebody on the FA market. OR... to overpay for 2nd and 3rd tier guys.

[jbk1234]

Hindsight is 20/20 but the decision not to include Covington in the offer to the Pelicans may come back to bite them. I've got no problem with 11 and Saric for Culver though.

The cap space bind they're in also isn't Rosa's fault. Moving off of Teague, Dieng, or Wiggins was going to require an asset. Having to move off of two of them to become players in F.A.was too heavy a lift.

I liked the fact that they basically got all of the Warriors young bench guys for free.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using RealGM mobile app

[Klomp]

Maybe. Time will tell.

But he'll learn quickly that chasing FA in Minnesota is a far cry from chasing them in Houston. Landing a difference-making FA would be unprecedented.

Hockey town + worst NBA franchise (historically) + COLD! + blah city for young millionaire athletes + no history + "flyover" country, et al is not an easy sell.

Those are definitely the negative perceptions about the market, but I think most outsiders would be surprised how wrong a few of those actually are.

[shangrila]

Doing fine

[TheZachAttack]

He literally hasn't done a single thing right since taking over for the Wolves.

He swung and missed on trading up for Garland.
He swung and missed on acquiring D'Angelo Russell. Which in return wasted our entire FA period with not being able to acquire a single meaningful player.
Now just let an asset like Tyus Jones walk for nothing.

What in the world is he doing?

1) He did not swing and miss on Garland. He traded up into a higher tier that included both Garland, Culver, Hunter, etc. The #1 target may have been Garland, but he chose Covington/Culver over Saric/Garland (because they could have used Covington to trade to the #4 spot. I would also choose Covington/Culver over Saric/Garland.

2) He did not swing and miss on D Lo. He aggressively pursued a guy who would make the Wolves better and the guy chose the pedigree of the Warriors instead of the Wolves. He was facing obstacles created by past administrations that he had to overcome as well.

3) Tyus Jones is a meh asset, especially on the money that he got paid. The Wolves have fallen into the trap of overpaying medoicre players i.e. Teague, Dieng, Wiggins, etc. big money for their value just because they have cap space.

Rosas is positioning the Wolves to shed salary and get out from the contract hell they are in. He's made a number of smart moves without giving up any assets essentially in Vonleh, Layman, Napier, and even Bell and T. Wallace who will be solid players to varying degrees with little money commitment. The Wolves also had a really good draft bringing in Culver, Nowell, and Naz Reid who all look like future rotation contributors down the road.

The important part is the mindset and making smart moves and being aggressive trying to target your guys. You can't control everything and Rosas is working to overcome MAJOR obstacles that prevent the Wolves from much flexibility. But if you have that mindset and target players and situations and try to make moves...some of them will work out and put your team in a better place...some won't, but that's fine.

Rosas is not just going to throw money around and make moves to target middling players on a team that's not in position to contend. His mindset is in the exact right place. He's involved himself in conversations with guys to try and improve the team and has been trying to shed the right contracts. The value has not been there and ultimately guys either haven't come or the dominoes did not fall right. But when the dominoes didn't fall right he maneuvered and made the best moves given the new hand available to him.

Patience. A rebuild does not happen in one offseason.

[Zombiesonics]

Tyus is definitely not 7 mill a year better than Napier, Shabazz is a totally capable backup pg on a competetive team. Layman and graham also solid two way hard working wings. I like what he is doing

[TheZachAttack]

Hindsight is 20/20 but the decision not to include Covington in the offer to the Pelicans may come back to bite them. I've got no problem with 11 and Saric for Culver though.

The cap space bind they're in also isn't Rosa's fault. Moving off of Teague, Dieng, or Wiggins was going to require an asset. Having to move off of two of them to become players in F.A.was too heavy a lift.

I liked the fact that they basically got all of the Warriors young bench guys for free.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-J327A using RealGM mobile app

I have a hard time believing that Garland/Saric > Covington/Culver. Garland would have to be borderline Lilliard or Tray Young esqe which he may be, but that is near the top end of his projections and that would also likely involve Culver not even reaching the middle area of his projected ceiling.

[vamos]

You buried the lead. But even that doesn't go far enough. It might be one leap for KAT... but it's 3 or 4 or 5 for the regressing Wiggins. Consider:

24.4 ppg / 12.4 reb / 3.4 ast / 51.8% fg / 40.0 % 3fg / 83.6% ft / 26.3 PER / 5.7 VORP (and he's shown steady improvement)
vs.
18.1 ppg / 4.8 reb / 2.5 ast / 41.2% fg / 33.9% 3fg / 69.9% ft / 12.4 PER / - 0.6 VORP (and he's regressed)

Now do you see why it's an insult to KAT to compare the two guys... in any way other than their draft spot? Would you have done the same in the same way for Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz when they were together in Philadelphia?

who is comparing them to each other? certainly not me.

[Klomp]

It's been reported by literally every local guy here that Garland is the guy they wanted. They had Culver in the same tier as him but Garland was the guy.

Your post is not evidence. If they had Culver in the same tier, why are you mentioning that as a negative at all?

Because Garland was who they wanted. They settled for Culver.

"The focus of our move there is we have to add top-end talent to our program. The reality is we identified five players that we felt like were strong at the front of this draft. We looked at every opportunity to move up. There were some openings at 4, 5, 6 and 7. We were fortunate that at the end of the day the best opportunity for us to move up was to get up to 6. We gambled a bit, Jarrett was one of our five guys and we were fortunate he was there....For us, adding a piece of talent at that level was worth a really good player in Saric." -Gersson Rosas (2:11)

Watch on YouTube

[AbeVigodaLive]

Maybe. Time will tell.

But he'll learn quickly that chasing FA in Minnesota is a far cry from chasing them in Houston. Landing a difference-making FA would be unprecedented.

Hockey town + worst NBA franchise (historically) + COLD! + blah city for young millionaire athletes + no history + "flyover" country, et al is not an easy sell.

Those are definitely the negative perceptions about the market, but I think most outsiders would be surprised how wrong a few of those actually are.

Sure.

I like the city and know it's about more than that. But I'm not the audience. There is a perception out there... and I doubt NBA players care to try to prove it wrong.

[AbeVigodaLive]

He literally hasn't done a single thing right since taking over for the Wolves.

He swung and missed on trading up for Garland.
He swung and missed on acquiring D'Angelo Russell. Which in return wasted our entire FA period with not being able to acquire a single meaningful player.
Now just let an asset like Tyus Jones walk for nothing.

What in the world is he doing?

Patience. A rebuild does not happen in one offseason.

More accurately, a re-re-re-re-rebuild doesn't happen in 15 years either...

I get the strategy. But I think if there's any fanbase out there that's been patient after one Promise of Hope campaign after another... it's the Wolves.

[Dacost]

Grizz fan here...don't know alot about Tyus since I never see wolves games ....did grizzlies really over pay for tyus??

[AbeVigodaLive]

You buried the lead. But even that doesn't go far enough. It might be one leap for KAT... but it's 3 or 4 or 5 for the regressing Wiggins. Consider:

24.4 ppg / 12.4 reb / 3.4 ast / 51.8% fg / 40.0 % 3fg / 83.6% ft / 26.3 PER / 5.7 VORP (and he's shown steady improvement)
vs.
18.1 ppg / 4.8 reb / 2.5 ast / 41.2% fg / 33.9% 3fg / 69.9% ft / 12.4 PER / - 0.6 VORP (and he's regressed)

Now do you see why it's an insult to KAT to compare the two guys... in any way other than their draft spot? Would you have done the same in the same way for Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz when they were together in Philadelphia?

who is comparing them to each other? certainly not me.

You grouped them together multiple ways in multiple posts... including in writing how they're both consistently inconsistent.

I think that's an inaccurate claim.

[Klomp]

Grizz fan here...don't know alot about Tyus since I never see wolves games ....did grizzlies really over pay for tyus??

I wouldn't call it an overpay, though it's at the high end of his range probably.

[Dan Z]

If Culver turns out to be a great player then he'll be looked at as a smart GM. Personally I think the Wolves should've stayed at 11 and just picked who they thought was best (maybe NAW?). Then either kept Saric or used him in another trade.

[Alonzo_Morning]

Grizz fan here...don't know alot about Tyus since I never see wolves games ....did grizzlies really over pay for tyus??

Well you didn't "overpay" in terms of giving up too many or too good of an asset. Though cap space is an asset in of itself too, but he's not a bad deal for you guys for your situation.

Minny has too much money tied up to be giving Tyus 8 mil a season