Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: More staff additions, Saunders’ optimism
By Ben Beecken
The Minnesota Timberwolves have announced yet another round of additions and promotions in the front office, plus a Q-and-A session with Ryan Saunders allows his optimism to shine through.
If you’ve paid any attention at all this offseason, you’ve seen several rounds of hiring announcements from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
With training camp just days away, the organization announced another flurry of promotions and additions, including the General Manager of the Iowa Wolves and changes in the Assistant General Manager role.
Gianluca Pascucci was added as the team’s assistant general manager back in May, only weeks after Gersson Rosas was hired as president of basketball operations. Now, he has another title to squeeze onto his business card.
The team announced that Pascucci will serve as the General Manager of the G League’s Iowa Wolves, in addition to his existing duties in the Timberwolves front office, including a focus on “pro personnel efforts at all levels”, according to the release.
Also notable was the promotion of Manny Rohan to an Assistant General Manager role in what will be his 10th season with the team. Rohan began as an intern and has worked his way up the organizational ladder in short order.
The other new staff members are from a bevy of intriguing backgrounds, including stints with other NBA teams, major universities and even other sports. It’s another sign of the Wolves thinking outside the box with many of their new hires, which has been a constant of the offseason.
Elsewhere, head coach Ryan Saunders sat down with Chris Hine of the Star Tribune and discussed the upcoming season. Namely, the conversation centered around the positivity that is around the organization compared to where things stood 12 months ago, at the height of the Jimmy Butler saga.
Needless to say, Saunders feels much better about the air around the team now than he did then, speaking about the family atmosphere that he and Rosas and the rest of the team’s leadership feel is necessary to instill in and around the organization.
Hine also asks some pointed questions about shot values, and specifically related to some of the main culprits of inefficient shot selection in recent years (read: Andrew Wiggins). Be sure to check out the article and the interview in its entirety.
Next. 5 realistic, big-name trade targets for the Wolves. dark
T-minus one day until media day…