lipoli390 wrote:Rosas is getting an education in how difficult it is to succeed heading the front office of a mid-market cold-climate team with no winning tradition in a state with a high income tax. He's going to have to get his draft picks right and develop the young players he has.
I'm almost certain he knew Minnesota's situation prior to accepting the job, and I don't see anything that's taken place this off-season that would have further educated him on that.
We don't need Brian Windhorst to report that D'Angelo Russell has interest in signing with Minnesota. We literally have one of his best friends on the payroll. It'd be like waiting for a rumor that Dwayne Wade wants to play with LeBron James. Established friendships usually dictate interest in playing with one another.
The difference between Minnesota and Phoenix and Los Angeles is their cap situations. Minnesota's smartest avenue of approach will be to acquire Russell via a sign-and-trade involving Brooklyn and likely one other team. The other two teams can essentially sign him using cap space (I'm aware Phoenix might have to dump a smaller contract to make it happen).
I don't see Russell being linked to Minnesota by the national media until the top dominoes fall and teams with cap space that struck out -- New York -- start looking elsewhere. When that happens, I do believe Rosas will get in the thick of things when it comes to Russell.