3 biggest mistakes of Gersson Rosas' tenure as the Minnesota Timberwolves' former president of basketball operations

Gersson Rosas officially joined the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 1, 2019, with years of NBA front office experience under his belt. He walked into a situation where the complementary talent of franchise cornerstone Karl-Anthony Towns was simply not cutting it.

Formerly being a part of Daryl Morey's team for the Houston Rockets, it was expected that Gersson Rosas would be active in trade conversations as a way to improve Minnesota. Rosas made a handful of transactions during his short tenure, but they clearly were not enough in the eyes of the Timberwolves' new ownership, which includes MLB legend Alex Rodriguez.

While drafting Anthony Edwards with the first overall selection holds major promise for the franchise moving forward, it is likely that the Wolves did not want to have a poor enough record where they were selecting first.

He was fired on September 22nd, 2021, seemingly to the surprise of Karl-Anthony Towns.

Here are the three worst moves made by Gersson Rosas during his time in Minnesota that may have led to his departure.

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#3 The Robert Covington four-team trade

Minnesota Timberwolves v Philadelphia 76ers

In a complicated four-team deal, the Gersson Rosas led Minnesota Timberwolves sent out Robert Covington, Keita Bates-Diop, Jordan Bell, and Noah Vonleh for a return of Malik Beasley, Juancho Hernangomez, Evan Turner, Jared Vanderbilt, and the 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Evan Turner never played for the Timberwolves and Jared Vanderbilt spent a majority of his time in the G-League. Juancho Hernangomez is still attempting to secure a role in the NBA, and was just recently traded to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Jarrett Culver (who will be mentioned in depth later) in exchange for Patrick Beverley.

The 17th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft (Aleksej Pokusevski) was moved to the Oklahoma City Thunder along with James Johnson in exchange for Ricky Rubio, pick 25, and pick 28 (Jaden McDaniels). Pick 25 was then used along with an additional future second-rounder to move up to pick 23 and select Leandro Bolmaro. Bolmaro has contributed zero NBA minutes thus far, but is expected to join Minnesota in 2021-22.

Malik Beasley as a primary return is not half bad, but with him entering restricted free agency, Gersson Rosas was compelled to shell out a four-year/$60-million deal the following offseason to keep him around. Gersson Rosas could have potentially offered that deal, which the Denver Nuggets likely would have been hesitant to match, without needing to give up the assets he did.

Jaden McDaniels seems to be a steal considering where he was selected and Bolmaro is an unknown, but moving down from pick 17 is questionable. The Timberwolves were known to be extremely thin at point guard the year before (another Gersson Rosas criticism), so you can't help but wonder if acquiring Rubio was a chief motive in this deal.

While essentially moving Robert Covington for a return of Malik Beasley, Jaden McDaniels and Leandro Bolmaro doesn't seem horrible, it could be viewed as contradictory for a team that was supposedly trying to win in the near future.

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#2 Trading up to draft Jarrett Culver

Detroit Pistons v Minnesota Timberwolves

Gersson Rosas moved up in the 2019 NBA Draft in his first offseason as Timberwolves president of basketball operations. Dario Saric and pick 11, which would become Cameron Thomas, were traded to the Phoenix Suns for pick six.

Typically, giving up an expiring contract (Saric) to vault up five spots in the NBA Draft lottery would be seen as phenomenal business. The issue is who was selected at pick six, Texas Tech's Jarrett Culver.

Culver showed promise after leading his college squad to the NCAA National Championship game, but in hindsight there were clearly better options on the table. Coby White, Cam Reddish, Cameron Johnson, P.J. Washington, Tyler Herro, Mattisse Thybulle and Rui Hachimura were all selected after Culver.

The draft is undeniably a crap shoot, and hindsight is 20-20, but Gersson Rosas being held accountable for Culver's selection is understandable and one of his more notable blunders.

Jarrett Culver was recently traded to the Los Angeles Clippers along with Juancho Hernangomez for Patrick Beverley. Not a great look for Gersson Rosas.

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#1 Sacraficing draft capital for D'Angelo Russell

Minnesota Timberwolves v Portland Trail Blazers

Andrew Wiggins' contract was a large constraint for Gersson Rosas when he joined the Minnesota Timberwolves. The resolution became to swap Wiggins for a longtime friend of Karl-Anthony Towns - D'Angelo Russell.

The full details of the trade include Andrew Wiggins and a top-three protected 2021 first-round pick for D'Angelo Russell. While Russell and Towns have been given minimal opportunity to share the floor together since the move due to some unfortunate injuries, the loss of draft capital stings significantly.

Gersson Rosas likely expected the Minnesota Timberwolves to be more successful when obtaining the former All-Star point guard, but that turned out not to be the case.

After all the moves Gersson Rosas made during his tenure, the Timberwolves had the sixth-best odds of landing a top pick come the 2021 NBA Draft Lottery. Not in his favor, the pick landed at seventh overall and the Golden State Warriors went on to select a falling Jonathan Kuminga.

Meanwhile in the Bay Area, Andrew Wiggins seems to have turned his career around and could be argued to carry more value than Russell at the current moment.

Gersson Rosas attempted to reshape this Minnesota Timberwolves franchise, but did little to increase the team's future trajectory or impact their current chances of success.