Wolves fire rosas!!!

[kekgeek]

Gupta does not have the interim tag by his name.

Per Dane

[Monster]

Maybe Gupta is not a snitch. That probably helps him in ARod's case.

LOL

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Gupta does not have the interim tag by his name.

Per Dane

I saw this on Twitter and didn't want to correct Dane Moore, but Sachin Gupta was already the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations prior to Gersson Rosas' dismissal. Gupta's held the position since June 30, 2019. There would be no reason for an interim label in that role, but there perhaps would have been had he been promoted in the short-term to Rosas' former position of President of Basketball Operations. I know I'm being fastidious, but I hope I'm making my point. Gupta's official role has not changed.

Edit: For example, when Ryan Saunders took over the head coaching position when Tom Thibodeau was fired he went from being an assistant coach to the interim head coach. His official position changed therefore the interim label was appropriate. That's all I'm getting at.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Marc Stein wrote that word circulated at Summer League in August that Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore would have loved to make a run at veteran executive Masai Ujiri, who ultimately re-upped with the Raptors. That goes with the other report of Minnesota wanting to catch a big fish, or a "top-five" executive, as Dane Moore put it. Ujiri would have certainly been a splash, and one that I would no doubt have been thrilled with. That report of interest in Elton Brand, however, made me very uneasy. I'm not sure of any other big names out there as far as available high profile executives. Dennis Lindsey would be a sneaky good add if they go that route, but otherwise I have to think it'll be someone that hasn't been the head decision-maker yet in their career.

[Monster]

Gupta does not have the interim tag by his name.

Per Dane

I saw this on Twitter and didn't want to correct Dane Moore, but Sachin Gupta was already the Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations prior to Gersson Rosas' dismissal. Gupta's held the position since June 30, 2019. There would be no reason for an interim label in that role, but there perhaps would have been had he been promoted in the short-term to Rosas' former position of President of Basketball Operations. I know I'm being fastidious, but I hope I'm making my point. Gupta's official role has not changed.

Edit: For example, when Ryan Saunders took over the head coaching position when Tom Thibodeau was fired he went from being an assistant coach to the interim head coach. His official position changed therefore the interim label was appropriate. That's all I'm getting at.

That's a good catch that his title hasn't changed. There has been no official announcement of his role changing either. Dane did make an interesting point about Presti having a that same title as part of his job title. There will be a press conference Monday announcing Arod and Lore. They need to address the Rosas firing at some point. I'm not saying they need to talk about it but they need to address it publicly. If they don't address it at all that will be a miss step IMHO.

[Lipoli390]

Monster - I don't think Gupta engineered or plotted to drive out Rosas. I just think he was a source for some of the key information in Jon K's article. I suspect that Jon asked him questions and that Gupta answered honestly. That's all. You might recall from Jon K's article that Rosas had banished Gupta from the office, but that ownership intervened to calm the storm. I find it interesting that Gupta didn't just quit or find another suitor given how he was being treated. He's obviously a highly respected NBA executive. My speculation is that ownership, at that time, might have given Sach some signals that the Rosas tyranny was going to come to an end sometime soon. Again, it wasn't a Gupta plot. But he must have been really frustrated with and angry at his boss during that period and I doubt he refused to share with Jon when asked. Ultimately, I suspect he had some notion that he could wait things out and things would get better.

[Lipoli390]

I think these paragraphs from Jon K's most recent article are telling. You can see in the bolded portions how all of this came to light and then to a head in the decision to fire Rosas. It seems clear that Gersson's departure happened because of Lore and A-Rod. They started digging into the organization in a way Glen Taylor never did. And they apparently started to find stuff that troubled them. As often happens in an investigation, the more you dig the more you find and the more you find the more you dig. I think Lore and A-Rod were simply trying to get a better handle on the workings of the organization as part of the process of assuming more control over the team as they progress towards majority ownership. In the process, they uncovered issues with Rosas that they probably didn't expect or set out to find. They seem to have concluded that they couldn't allow those issues to fester over the course of the season. I'm sure there are some troubling things we don't know. Here are the paragraphs:

It didn't take long for the unique new structure of the Timberwolves' ownership group to be tested in a high-pressure situation. Taylor has owned the team since 1994 and has brought in Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez as minority partners with the intent to transfer full ownership to them in two years. Lore and Rodriguez were officially approved in late July, and the three men put together a plan to run the franchise during this period of transition.

Taylor remains the final decision-maker, and he was the one who signed off on Rosas' firing. But Lore and Rodriguez have considerable voices in the process. Taylor put them together with CEO Ethan Casson and COO Ryan Tanke as what he calls an "executive team" that is charged with examining the organization as a whole and coming up with plans to improve everything from business and marketing to basketball. The idea is to help Lore and Rodriguez learn the league and the franchise and make changes they feel are needed so that when they assume full control in two years, things are in place and ready to roll.

At the time that plan was put into place, it was hard to envision having to fire Rosas this quickly. But sources say the deep dive Lore and Rodriguez were doing into the franchise started to raise concerns to them about the disenchantment in the front office earlier this summer. That coupled with the team's lack of success led Lore and Rodriguez to believe a change was going to have to be made eventually. When more details surrounding Rosas' relationship with another member of the Wolves staff emerged this week and they learned that people in the organization were becoming more and more uncomfortable, the timeline on that decision-making sped up. Taylor agreed and ultimately made the drive to tell Rosas face to face.

Lore has spent the last few days reaching out to players individually to relay the team's belief in them and answer any questions the players may have about the situation.

Now the three of them will continue to evaluate the front office as the season begins. The three will hold an introductory press conference for Lore and Rodriguez at media day on Monday, and what was initially expected to be a light-hearted endeavor certainly will now be a lot heavier as they explain their thoughts behind the move and what happens going forward.

[Monster]

Monster - I don't think Gupta engineered or plotted to drive out Rosas. I just think he was a source for some of the key information in Jon K's article. I suspect that Jon asked him questions and that Gupta answered honestly. That's all. You might recall from Jon K's article that Rosas had banished Gupta from the office, but that ownership intervened to calm the storm. I find it interesting that Gupta didn't just quit or find another suitor given how he was being treated. He's obviously a highly respected NBA executive. My speculation is that ownership, at that time, might have given Sach some signals that the Rosas tyranny was going to come to an end sometime soon. Again, it wasn't a Gupta plot. But he must have been really frustrated with and angry at his boss during that period and I doubt he refused to share with Jon when asked. Ultimately, I suspect he had some notion that he could wait things out and things would get better.

That's a fair perspective. I think there is a chance that none of this info came from Gupta. Do I think that's likely? No but if Gupta hadn't shared any of this info outside the organization I think that would be a bit of a positive to me in terms of how I saw Gupta.

Of course if there was something beyond Rosas affair that really crossed the line I would hope Gupta communicated that to ownership.

I know from a past job that it's not easy to navigate when your direct supervisor is doing a poor job. I knew it had to be addressed with the administrator above him but I also was aware that the person who had my position in the organization before me tried to get my supervisor fired and take his job. I did not have any media asking me about what was going on unless you want to count my future wife who was a college communications major at the time. Lol

[FNG]

Lore has spent the last few days reaching out to players individually to relay the team's belief in them and answer any questions the players may have about the situation.

Now the three of them will continue to evaluate the front office as the season begins. The three will hold an introductory press conference for Lore and Rodriguez at media day on Monday, and what was initially expected to be a light-hearted endeavor certainly will now be a lot heavier as they explain their thoughts behind the move and what happens going forward.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Lip's last post illustrates to me that Minnesota's ownership trio handled Gersson Rosas' termination with precision and professionalism that we haven't always seen in the past. It's difficult to know what a well-run Wolves organization feels like, but I think this is it. Their next big challenge will remain the pursuit of Ben Simmons, but after that I would assume the process of conducting a search for a President of Basketball Operations will be underway even if it's just the preliminary stages. That hire will be very telling to me as to which way this franchise progresses.