Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas has made one of his most pressing decisions in his new job _ and he is keeping Ryan Saunders as head coach.
A source confirmed that Rosas and Saunders are finalizing an agreement for Saunders to be the permanent head coach.
Rosas also made another move in the front office, bringing in Nets director of global scouting Gianluca Pascucci as an assistant general manager, a source confirmed.
Saunders became the interim coach after owner Glen Taylor fired former coach and President Tom Thibodeau on Jan. 6. Under Saunders, the Wolves went 17-25 and missed the playoffs, but Saunders has strong relationships with players like Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins along with Taylor, who also owns the Star Tribune.
It was expected since late in the season that Saunders, 33, would become the head coach on a permanent basis, but that decision was up to Rosas. He interviewed several outside candidates for the job. Among those Rosas interviewed while at the scouting combine in Chicago last week were Miami assistant Juwan Howard, Portland assistant David Vanterpool, New Orleans associate head coach Chris Finch and Milwaukee assistant Darvin Ham.
A few days after Rosas took the job, he and Saunders spent several hours over the course of three days talking about their vision for the job, a vision that including what an assistant coaching staff might look like, personnel, to style of play, player development, staff and how to modernize the Wolves' offense into a up-tempo efficient offense.
Rosas made the decision to interview outside candidates, with Finch being someone league sources thought could be a logical fit in Minnesota with Rosas, given Finch previously worked as an assistant in Houston. However, Rosas made the call on hiring Saunders after vetting the other candidates.
Players like Towns endorsed Saunders' candidacy in the final weeks of the season even after the Wolves were eliminated from the playoffs.
"It would be something really different for me to have some stability and actually know what's happening the next day," Towns said in April. "I'm not going to jinx it because nothing is given when you're a Timberwolf. I'm just going to go along for the ride and continue to work on myself, my game and be the best player out there."
Veterans like Jerryd Bayless and Anthony Tolliver praised Saunders communication skills and said it was rare to have that in the NBA.
"That's not the norm. That's just the unfortunate reality of the NBA," Bayless said. "It's the way it goes sometimes, but Ryan has been great. (General manager) Scott (Layden) has been great with me too, honestly. Can't say anything negative about either of them."
Added Tolliver: "Within the first week I think we had maybe three conversations, and I said in the last 10 years I think I've maybe had three individual conversations with coaches each year total. ... It goes a long way."
Upon taking the job there was no mandate for Rosas to keep either Saunders or general manager Scott Layden, whose future with the team is still unknown.
Rosas did make the addition of Pascucci to the front office. Pascucci and Rosas have a history of working together as Pascucci spent 10 seasons working in Houston, where Rosas was vice president. Pascucci was the Rockets' vice president of player personnel and general manager of their G-League affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.
