In his first year, Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Gersson Rosas has committed to rebuilding through a vision of spacing, 3-point shooting and star-power.
With a little under 20 games left in the NBA season, there are two ways to measure the success of the 2019-20 Minnesota Timberwolves.
One can read into the traditional box scores and standings, where the Wolves began the season with a 10-8 record and have since free fallen to the third-worst record in the league. One can also look at Karl-Anthony Towns’ season, the franchises’ star player, who only played 35 games due to injury.
Or, one can label the 2019-20 season as the time where the organization cut its losses and pulled the plug on former first overall pick Andrew Wiggins. Ultimately, in the short-term, it is difficult to find silver-lining in the team’s performance.
On the other hand, there is another lense to look at the Wolves’ season, one that requires more long term thinking. Instead of seeing another losing season, the franchise has one playoff appearance since 2004, it can be looked at as a pivotal one; the pivot from a Scott Layden and Tom Thibodeau run front office to one led by Daryl Morey proteges Gersson Rosas and Sachin Gupta.
In the short time that Rosas has been in Minnesota, he has applied some Moreyball tactics that he learned while with the Houston Rockets; space the floor, shoot 3-pointers, and acquire star power that fits next to your current star at all costs, even if it requires a complete roster overhaul.