Gersson Rosas' first year on the job featured roster turnover at a breakneck pace, fans would be forgiven if they got whiplash trying to keep up with all the changes.
Gersson Rosas is betting on the hand he has with Timberwolves after slow offseason
The Timberwolves made few moves and haven't signed any significant free agents this offseason.
August 8, 2021 at 5:50AM
Before the NBA temporarily shut down the 2019-2020 season because of the coronavirus pandemic, Rosas had only two original members from the team he inherited — Josh Okogie and Karl-Anthony Towns — still on the roster less than a year into his job.
That's what made the last week seem so puzzling. Free agency largely came and went without Rosas making a signing. The only move the Wolves made that'll have a significant impact on the roster was trading Ricky Rubio last week to Cleveland for forward Taurean Prince. Other than that, crickets.
"We knew we didn't have a lot of room or options or flexibility in free agency but we were fine with that," said coach Chris Finch, who was in Los Angeles with Rosas this week. "If you look at our roster, we're unique in that we have talent at various levels. We have high level talent, young talent."
This is a crucial season upcoming for the Rosas regime. After two tough-to-stomach seasons filled with plenty of losing, fans are hungry to see signs — any sign — that the Wolves will be playoff contenders sooner than later.
Rosas hasn't been afraid to take big swings in his deals, but the last two cycles of major player movement, this summer and March's trade deadline, came and went with the Wolves lying low. Not to mention new ownership in Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore are coming in and it's unknown just what their expectations will be when it comes to on the court performance.
With this lack of moves, Rosas avoided giving away any bad deals or dealing any young prospects like Jaden McDaniels in exchange for players more suited to help the Wolves win now.
"Sometimes it's good to just sit back and not necessarily chase all these guys just because you feel like you have to do that," Finch said.
Instead Rosas and co. have made a different kind of bet — that the roster he has assembled will improve enough largely on its own without much outside help. If Anthony Edwards keeps getting better after his strong second half of the season, that path of roster construction, or lack thereof, may work out OK.
Though the Wolves did not get much better at a position Rosas said was a priority last spring — power forward.
At the trade deadline Rosas said the Wolves would try to upgrade the power forward position this offseason and Prince adds depth there, but would Prince crack the starting lineup ahead of second-year player McDaniels?
If the Wolves trotted out a starting lineup tomorrow, McDaniels would likely be penciled in as the four, even though he may be better suited long term as a three. Finch mentioned McDaniels' offseason work has been more in line with the three position, "but that's mostly in an effort to develop ball skill, not just because we see he's permanently a three," Finch said.
When fans heard Rosas make that pledge about the four position, they probably had more than Prince in mind, but almost all forwards outside of Chicago's Lauri Markkanen came and went to other teams, or others, like Atlanta's John Collins, re-signed with their current team. That slot on the roster still may need some work.
"Now the league is made up of these combo forwards, these guys who play between the three and four," Finch said. "If you look around, it's kind of what is forming a lot of the backbone of these teams."
Overall, Rosas is betting that the glimmers of progress last year's roster showed under Chris Finch the final weeks of the season (7-5 in their final 12 games) will carry over into next year.
It could be a tenuous bet, one Rosas is making on the strength of his own evaluation of the players he brought in over the last 18 months.
The last two years have already been tough to take for all involved and last year was especially difficult all around the team and organization as the Wolves stumbled almost immediately as Towns was injured in the second game of the season. Another slow start could send morale plummeting even more.
This may hinge on two things. D'Angelo Russell and the team's defense. Rosas entered this offseason with limited space (around $10 million) under the luxury tax in part because of the Russell trade. Russell and Towns combine to make over $61 million with the luxury tax at $136 million, and with Rubio gone, the offense is in Russell's hands at point guard.
It's up to Russell to make that trade look like a prudent one for Rosas, especially since the Wolves sacrificed a first-round pick to make it happen. Russell's numbers improved after he came back from knee surgery under Finch, will he stay on that upward trajectory and become more than a liability on defense?
The lack of moves also means the dynamic on defense hasn't changed much, and the Wolves are banking on internal improvement from everyone on the roster to move up from their 28th rated defense.
Maybe there is still a big move out there — Ben Simmons is still on the 76ers — but barring a considerable shift in the Wolves' favor, the team they trot out in October will largely look like the one that ended the season in May.
How much better will it actually be?
The players communicated through a group text chain to pull themselves out of a four-game losing streak. But the thread is used for other ways to bond and build camaraderie.
