Timberwolves fire president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas

The Minnesota Timberwolves have fired president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas, according to Shams Charania and Jon Krawczynski. Rosas took over in this role in 2019 and made several big moves in his short tenure, including a trade for D’Angelo Russell in which he gave up a lightly protected first-round pick.

There’s already some fallout among Timberwolves players, who clearly were not aware of the move happening.

According to Ramona Shelburne and Zach Lowe, Rosas was still holding meetings and was in the gym Wednesday morning ahead of the news breaking.

The Timberwolves were rumored to be in the mix for Ben Simmons, who has made it clear he no longer wants to play with the Philadelphia 76ers. Minnesota is the odds-on favorite to land Simmons, but it’s unclear if this move has anything to do with that potential trade. It appears Minnesota’s new ownership group did not approve of Rosas’ recent decisions and decided to have a clean break before the season.

Minnesota is attempting to make the playoffs for the second time since 2004-05. The franchise has been mired in misery and even with a promising trio of Russell, Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards, it’s tough to see the Timberwolves being a factor in the West this year.