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Welcome back! After an enjoyable three-day holiday weekend, the Minnesota Timberwolves (more specifically Gersson Rosas) got right back to work Tuesday morning, finalizing a major hire for their Basketball Operations department:
The Minnesota Timberwolves are finalizing hiring Detroit Pistons assistant GM Sachin Gupta as Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, league sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. Gupta and Gersson Rosas worked together in Houston.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 28, 2019
For those of you unfamiliar with the name, Gupta was hired last summer as Assistant General Manager for the Detroit Pistons, in an effort to revamp their front office after the departure of Stan Van Gundy. Prior to his brief stint in Detroit, Gupta spent time with the Houston Rockets as a special advisor to Daryl Morey. This was actually Gupta’s second stint with the Rockets, his first coming back in 2006 when he was Morey’s first hire for the front office after Morey was hired away from the Boston Celtics. Gupta also spent time with the Philadelphia 76ers, as John mentions below:
Great article on Sachin Gupta that we discussed last week at @canishoopus when there were rumblings about this happening. Give it a read. https://t.co/1zDNYt4Cfn
— John Meyer (@thedailywolf) May 28, 2019
OK... I know most of that is just a resume word salad and not very exciting, but here’s the fun part: Gupta, a graduate from MIT, is most well-known as the man responsible for developing the NBA Trade Machine on ESPN.com! Yes, THIS NBA TRADE MACHINE!
Maybe it’s the coffee speaking but it’s becoming more and more evident that the Minnesota Timberwolves are rapidly becoming a... well-run organization? As far as I can tell, “Executive VP of Basketball Operations” was not a position that had existed for the Wolves prior to Rosas’s arrival, which supports the reports that Glen Taylor is willing to spend money to improve the franchise off the court as well as on it. Gupta will now essentially become Rosas’s #2, which suggests to me that Scott Layden is getting the “Milton from Office Space” treatment — getting pushed to a smaller and smaller desk in the hopes that he eventually just disappears.
Again, it’s early out on the West Coast, so you’ll have to forgive me, but this hire is a massive “W” for the franchise. While Rosas will continue to receive some push back for his hire of Ryan Saunders, there is no doubt that this man has the strategy (and connections) necessary to bring the Wolves out of the sewers of the Western Conference.
Wake up and smell the Rosas!