Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolves to hire Gersson Rosas to lead front office

The Minnesota Timberwolves have reportedly decided on a new president of basketball operations to lead the front office into the future.

Heading into last weekend, the Minnesota Timberwolves had four finalists for their vacant president of basketball operations position. Now, the Wolves have reportedly made their decision.

Houston Rockets executive vice president Gersson Rosas appears to have won out over Brooklyn Nets assistant general manager Trajan Langdon, Denver Nuggets assistant general manager Calvin Booth, and ESPN analyst Chauncey Billups, who reportedly interviewed on Monday in Minneapolis.

Rosas has spent much of the last 16 years with the Rockets, save for a brief stint with the Dallas Mavericks. The Rockets, of course, were at the forefront of the NBA’s analytics revolution and have led the way in multiple facets of progressive front office and coaching tactics.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski quoted Rockets boss Daryl Morey on the move:

"“Gersson has been an unbelievable person to work with,” Morey told ESPN. “He’s been way overqualified for his job for a while here. He’s more than earned his shot, although I wish he would’ve gone East. We’re going to have an extremely tough competitor in the West.“Minnesota is going to find how forward-thinking, how hard-working and how talented he is at putting together a winning team.”"

Gersson had also recently interviewed for the Washington Wizards’ general manager position, and had interviewed for the same role in Charlotte last year.

As noted in our write-up on the front office search just over a week ago, Rosas’ three-month stint with the Mavericks in 2013 is a bit concerning, and it was no doubt something that Timberwolves brass would have dug-in on during the interview process.

The Athletics’s Jon Krawczynski gave a bit of a peek behind the curtain related to the Wolves process, which was largely spearheaded by CEO Ethan Casson, although it was Taylor’s recent face-to-face sit-down with Rosas that pushed the decision over the edge.

Interestingly, Rosas reportedly has a relationship with former Wolves boss Tom Thibodeau, who was an assistant in Houston while Rosas was in the front office. According to Krawczynski, the two still communicate on a regular basis and there could be some benefits to that relationship in greasing the wheels for Rosas to Minnesota.

We still don’t know exactly what impact Rosas’ hiring may have on interim head coach Ryan Saunders and general manager Scott Layden’s future with the organization. It would be a mild surprise at this point if ether of them was not back, but that’s one more thing watch.

Stay tuned for the official announcement from the team. We’ll know much more about Rosas and his philosophy once he’s officially introduced and sits in front of the Twin Cities media.

if nothing else, this signals a change in direction for the Timberwolves franchise as they try to modernize and stay competitive in the front office.