Minnesota Sports Forum

Monster wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 8:46 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 7:58 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 4:43 pm I'm a TC guy and will never be a Rosas guy. Sure, he drafted Ant in 2020, but I give him as much credit for that as I give the GMs who drafted guys like Flagg and Wemby. I never really considered Wiseman or Ball options at 1...Wiseman had only played about 8 NCAA games and it was too difficult to project Ball based on his odd resume. And let's not forget his first draft when he traded Saric (who had put up 16/8 per 36 for us the previous year) and the 11th pick for Culver...what a disaster! I'll admit I'm glad his dealing brought us Jaden McDaniels with the 28th pick, but let's not ignore it came at a cost...we had to give up James Johnson (who is still in the league at 37!) and the 17th pick with Tyrese Maxey available. Rosas's poor moves had a lot to do with us winning only 42 games in his first two seasons

We got better when we ended up with the 1st pick in the 2020 draft, and then we became a perennial playoff team with the moves TC made. In my household we always celebrate September 22, the day the Wolves fired Rosas after learning he had been dipping his pen in the company inkwell.

FNG, Ant was NEVER thought of in the same way as Flagg or Wemby as a consensus #1 pick. May be to you he was an obvious pick - and kudos to you if that's the case - but many people who do this for a living didn't see it that way. For every draftnick that had him at #1, there was someone else that had Ball or Wiseman at #1. The highly respected Jonathan Givony (remember Draft Express??) had Ant at #4 and Ball at #1.

Also, Ant had holes in his game, including outside shooting. It was not clear that he would eventually become a lethal 3-point shooter. He also showed some of the same lapses of shot selection and effort that you complain about to this day. He was far from a surefire prospect even though he had elite athleticism and size for a guard.

The Jaden pick was brilliant and don't forget Rosas was the one that brought in Finch, not Connelly. Ant, Jaden, and Finch along with Rudy (credit to TC) form the foundation of five playoff series wins in three years.

Being remotely concerned about giving up James Johnson to get McDaniels is laughable especially when you could have knocked Rosas for Drafting Bolmoro ahead of Jaden.

I thought Rosas made a savvy move in trading Saric for something it turned out he was just a bench player. Now the trade up didn't work out but moving on from Saric was wise.

Rosas also hired Finch and I think even the folks who aren't as big of a fan of his would agree he was a good hire at the time and helped the team move forward.

Rosas was also the GM of the Wolves when they signed Naz Reid as an undrafted FA. So in that draft cycle he ended up with 3 good players. Yes he had lots of assets to acquire them and he missed on 2 picks but that's a nice haul. Not everything Rosas did was great (same with Connelly) but he should get plenty of credit for where the Wolves are now.

Lipoli390 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 03, 2026 11:32 am

Monster wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 8:46 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Thu Oct 01, 2026 7:58 pm

FNG, Ant was NEVER thought of in the same way as Flagg or Wemby as a consensus #1 pick. May be to you he was an obvious pick - and kudos to you if that's the case - but many people who do this for a living didn't see it that way. For every draftnick that had him at #1, there was someone else that had Ball or Wiseman at #1. The highly respected Jonathan Givony (remember Draft Express??) had Ant at #4 and Ball at #1.

Also, Ant had holes in his game, including outside shooting. It was not clear that he would eventually become a lethal 3-point shooter. He also showed some of the same lapses of shot selection and effort that you complain about to this day. He was far from a surefire prospect even though he had elite athleticism and size for a guard.

The Jaden pick was brilliant and don't forget Rosas was the one that brought in Finch, not Connelly. Ant, Jaden, and Finch along with Rudy (credit to TC) form the foundation of five playoff series wins in three years.

Being remotely concerned about giving up James Johnson to get McDaniels is laughable especially when you could have knocked Rosas for Drafting Bolmoro ahead of Jaden.

I thought Rosas made a savvy move in trading Saric for something it turned out he was just a bench player. Now the trade up didn't work out but moving on from Saric was wise.

Rosas also hired Finch and I think even the folks who aren't as big of a fan of his would agree he was a good hire at the time and helped the team move forward.

Rosas was also the GM of the Wolves when they signed Naz Reid as an undrafted FA. So in that draft cycle he ended up with 3 good players. Yes he had lots of assets to acquire them and he missed on 2 picks but that's a nice haul. Not everything Rosas did was great (same with Connelly) but he should get plenty of credit for where the Wolves are now.

Well said, Monster.

This team is built around four core players - Ant, Jaden, LaMelo and Rudy. The first two were drafted by Rosas. Ant was not a consensus #1 pick at the time and Jaden was picked at #28. Melo would not be a T-Wolf and the Wolves probably wouldn’t have been to two Conference finals if Rosas hadn’t signed Naz as an undrafted free agent. Rudy wouldn’t be a T-Wolf if Rosas hadn’t handed TC a nearly full cupboard of draft picks and quality players like Beasley, Vando and others who helped the team win 46 games.

FNG wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2026 3:53 pm I appreciate the arguments supporting the tenure of Gersson Rosas, but I'm wondering if we're talking about the same guy! I will always think of the Rosas regime as some of the worst GMing in Wolves history...and that's a high bar! He came across as the smartest guy in the room, but was dumb enough to be caught kissing an employee out in public at a soccer game. I'm not making a moral criticism here...I certainly have my moral failings...I'm just addressing the stupidity of it. But the Wolves would have had to fire him after two years even if the soccer kiss hadn't occurred...go back and read the article Jonny Athletic wrote about the firing to see how much he was despised within the organization.

During his two years, there was only one move he made that I thought was brilliant...signing Naz as a free agent. But everything else he did was either meh or a disaster. It's not surprising the Wolves went 42-94 during his tenure...a sterling .309 "winning" percentage. Let's review his most significant moves.

1) Trading up to #6 in the draft to select future hall of famer Jarett Culver. He was a nice guy and we all wanted him to succeed, but it was clear from the start he was going to be a bust.

2) Well, he did provide a lot of fodder for this board by trading for D'Angelo Russell. Sure, Wig was a disappointment to many of us here, but he has had some good years since the trade...including a chip. And let's not forget Rosas included a very lightly protected first round pick and a second rounder to bring in DLo! I'll never forgive him for that trade...fortunately TC was able to come in a couple years later and clean up the mess in aisle 3.

3) We did get Ant in the draft with the first pick, and Lip is correct that he was not considered a sure thing like Wemby or Flagg. But Lip is wrong that Ant was not the consensus first pick at the time of the draft. Of the 12 most respected mock drafts, 9 of them had Ant going first. All 12 mocks had Wiseman going 2nd, and 8 of the 12 had Ball going 3rd. I'm wrong about a lot of things, but if Rosas wasn't going to trade down in an attempt to get Halliburton (and how often to GMs trade the first pick?), I was firmly with the strong majority of the mocks. Some may want to give Rosas credit for "bringing us Ant", but I'm never going to build a statue for a guy who just made the consensus move.

4) We're all happy with Jaden on our team, but again, I don't think I would credit Rosas for a brilliant move. Jaden kind of fell into his lap, as he was mocked mostly in the early 20s. But let's not forget that we had to give up the 17th pick to get Jaden and the remains of Ricky Rubio. Tyrese Maxey was projected to go to us at 17 in several mocks. We all love Jaden and Ricky, but wouldn't you have rather had Maxey?

5) Was hiring Chris Finch a brilliant move? I don't know...the board here certainly wasn't much in favor of the move, and "fire Finch" posts are still common here. Ryan had to go after so many losses, and as much as I like Finchy, who knows if he was the best choice out there.

Sorry to beat a dead horse here, but if I had to dole out credit for our current success, 90% would go to TC and only 10% to Rosas (or maybe DLo, since he represented us at the 2020 lottery!).

Mnwild1128 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2026 9:48 pm

FNG wrote: ↑Mon Oct 05, 2026 3:53 pm I appreciate the arguments supporting the tenure of Gersson Rosas, but I'm wondering if we're talking about the same guy! I will always think of the Rosas regime as some of the worst GMing in Wolves history...and that's a high bar! He came across as the smartest guy in the room, but was dumb enough to be caught kissing an employee out in public at a soccer game. I'm not making a moral criticism here...I certainly have my moral failings...I'm just addressing the stupidity of it. But the Wolves would have had to fire him after two years even if the soccer kiss hadn't occurred...go back and read the article Jonny Athletic wrote about the firing to see how much he was despised within the organization.

During his two years, there was only one move he made that I thought was brilliant...signing Naz as a free agent. But everything else he did was either meh or a disaster. It's not surprising the Wolves went 42-94 during his tenure...a sterling .309 "winning" percentage. Let's review his most significant moves.

1) Trading up to #6 in the draft to select future hall of famer Jarett Culver. He was a nice guy and we all wanted him to succeed, but it was clear from the start he was going to be a bust.

2) Well, he did provide a lot of fodder for this board by trading for D'Angelo Russell. Sure, Wig was a disappointment to many of us here, but he has had some good years since the trade...including a chip. And let's not forget Rosas included a very lightly protected first round pick and a second rounder to bring in DLo! I'll never forgive him for that trade...fortunately TC was able to come in a couple years later and clean up the mess in aisle 3.

3) We did get Ant in the draft with the first pick, and Lip is correct that he was not considered a sure thing like Wemby or Flagg. But Lip is wrong that Ant was not the consensus first pick at the time of the draft. Of the 12 most respected mock drafts, 9 of them had Ant going first. All 12 mocks had Wiseman going 2nd, and 8 of the 12 had Ball going 3rd. I'm wrong about a lot of things, but if Rosas wasn't going to trade down in an attempt to get Halliburton (and how often to GMs trade the first pick?), I was firmly with the strong majority of the mocks. Some may want to give Rosas credit for "bringing us Ant", but I'm never going to build a statue for a guy who just made the consensus move.

4) We're all happy with Jaden on our team, but again, I don't think I would credit Rosas for a brilliant move. Jaden kind of fell into his lap, as he was mocked mostly in the early 20s. But let's not forget that we had to give up the 17th pick to get Jaden and the remains of Ricky Rubio. Tyrese Maxey was projected to go to us at 17 in several mocks. We all love Jaden and Ricky, but wouldn't you have rather had Maxey?

5) Was hiring Chris Finch a brilliant move? I don't know...the board here certainly wasn't much in favor of the move, and "fire Finch" posts are still common here. Ryan had to go after so many losses, and as much as I like Finchy, who knows if he was the best choice out there.

Sorry to beat a dead horse here, but if I had to dole out credit for our current success, 90% would go to TC and only 10% to Rosas (or maybe DLo, since he represented us at the 2020 lottery!).

Your right. Drafting Ant when there was three top prospects and no consensus number 1, but seeing the vision for what Ant could be. Or doing the same with Jaden all the way freaking down at pick 28 when 98% of the time pick 28 is a bust.

Makes sense.