The Wolves officially announced this afternoon that Washington Wizards executive Milt Newton is their new general manager.

Newton, a member of the 1988 NCAA championship team under Larry Brown and with Danny Manning at Kansas, had been with the Wizards for the last decade, most recently as vice president of player personnel.

Flip Saunders worked with Newton when he coached the Wizards a few years back.

Before that, he worked for the NBA helping to create the D-League, was an assistant direction for USA Basketball men's national teams and was a scout for the 76ers.

If you're wondering, the GM title is just semantics: President of basketball operations still trumps all and Saunders still will be making the decisions.

Newton will assist Saunders in evaluation and acquistion of players and help Saunders manage basketball operations, the team said in a release announcing Newton's hiring.

Newton will be formally introduced as a Tuesday news conference at Target Center.

His hiring -- as well as the May hiring of Calvin Booth -- adds diversity to a Wolves front office that has noticeably lacked it during most of the team's 25 seasons.

The official hiring of former Gophers star and former Timberwolf Bobby Jackson as player development coach is next. That likely will come Monday.

For those asking, Jackson's arrival means Shawn Respert won't be back in that role. Respert and David Adelman both worked as player development coaches last season; Adelman has been promoted to an assistant coach now that Bill Bayno has taken a job with Toronto.