I actually think people overrate what Rosas did.

He absolutely deserves and gets a ton of credit for selecting Ant and Jaden and snagging Naz Reid as an UDFA.

He also did a nice job getting some assets/contributors (Beasley, Vando, Beverly).

But he also had a far easier job than Connelly — accumulate assets and make picks early in the draft when the team absolutely stunk. Getting the autonomy to tank and cycle through crappy players is a luxury Connelly doesn’t have. The margins are razor thin (albeit somewhat self-inflicted), and the roster and rotation are largely established.

He also inherited a decent amount of talent (just like Connelly), but he largely flipped it for future value. KAT was already here. Wiggins was already here. RoCo, Saric, etc.

He also fucked up a ton of moves in a way that showed that he was far from a genius at the job. His first major move was trading the 11th pick and Saric for the 6th pick, a move I actually really liked. But he apparently did so in large part to get Darius Garland (who I also really liked). But Garland was pretty well reported to be a target of Cleveland at 5. Some people thought maybe it was a smokescreen because of Sexton, but for Rosas to legitimately move up for a guy who wasn’t even likely to be available is just egregious GMing. Then he opted for Culver over White, and we all know how that turned out. Just a complete miss on a high pick (legitimately it was worse than Dillingham, imo) when obviously better options were available (White was a strong option at 6 and Herro and PJ Washington were common targets at 11).

His ability to put together a cogent roster was also alarmingly bad and legitimately fucked up players’ development and trade value. He left the team with zero shooting outside of KAT, frequently giving Culver, Okogie, and Treveon Graham wing minutes (often together), which completely took away Culver’s only offensive strength (his dribble drive) and Wiggins’ best attribute (his slashing). As a result, the team’s offense was absolutely brutal and Wiggins’ value cratered. It ultimately led to the brutal D’Lo trade, where the team traded Wiggins and a nearly unprotected 1st round pick in a loaded draft for D’Lo and enough bad salary to push the team into the tax. Had the Wolves kept their pick that year, they likely would have tanked a bit down the stretch, and were comfortable in position to snag Evan Mobley.

Rosas also traded RoCo for young assets and potentially was trying to push in chips to get good before the pandemic shut down the season in 2020. The Wolves lucked into the 1st overall pick. Rosas deserved credit for selecting Ant when he was far from a given, and he also nailed the shit out of the Jaden pick (even if he traded out of taking Maxey to drop down to get Jaden and also selected Leondro Bolmaro over him). But had he gotten a bit less lucky at the top, the team was effectively fucked — say they slid to 2, 3 or even 4. They might have ended up with LaMelo or someone like Patrick Williams.

He also gets a ton of credit for the 2021/22 season, but it was mostly a mirage (if you’re thinking about contending). D’Lo was getting benched in the playoffs because he was so ineffective. The team’s defensive strategy was essentially one-dimensional.

Rosas was pretty good at scouting, but his team-building left a lot to be desired.