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Jazz hire Celtics Assistant GM Austin Ainge as new President of Basketball Operations

Elizah Huge said:
It doesn’t really matter if Zanik feels that way. I’m sure he would love that position.

Ryan has gone over his head twice now.

Are you asking why we shouldn’t want him promoted? His track record is shaky at best.
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That's fine for Ryan to think like that as long as he's ok losing him or having him disgruntled. I also think it's possible that JZ is happy with his role and isn't interested in Austin's position.

I don't have strong opinions on JZ, but they are generally favorable. What has he done, that was for sure his call, that you've been unhappy with?
 
SoberasHotRod said:
That's fine for Ryan to think like that as long as he's ok losing him or having him disgruntled. I also think it's possible that JZ is happy with his role and isn't interested in Austin's position.

I don't have strong opinions on JZ, but they are generally favorable. What has he done, that was for sure his call, that you've been unhappy with?
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Again, JZ is not a basketball person. He's basically an agent for a team. He's the guy who goes out, builds relationships, collects Intel, and puts people in places to do their jobs.

I think the only thing the addition of AA takes from JZ is that AA is now the public facing executive who answers questions about the team.
 
This morning’s episode of Locked on Jazz from was extremely good. I recommend that every Jazz fan give it a listen.

Biggest takeaway and thing I agree with Locke on is, it would be negligent to not be bad next year. We absolutely need to keep our pick. The first-round obligation ends to OKC if we are picking 1-8 in the 2026 draft. It then immediately turns into seconds. That alone is enough to justify being bad again. Also, you know the top of the 2026 class is insanely good with Dybantsa, Boozer, and Peterson.

Another good point is it is likely going to be easier to make deals now with Austin Ainge at the helm. We have been trying to extract and squeeze the absolute most value out of any deal we’ve done the past few years. We missed out on deals because of that and there are some deals we likely should have compromised and done regardless.

I think we end up dealing some vets like John Collins, Collin Sexton, and Jordan Clarkson. We likely take calls on Lauri Markkanen as well.
 
I think we have the FO roles right now. At 66, Danny wants to be more in an advisor role, taking it easier and not doing all the busy stuff that NBA presidents have to do. And Zanik is keeping his role, which I think he’s done well. And Ryan does what Ryan does.
 
SoberasHotRod said:
That's fine for Ryan to think like that as long as he's ok losing him or having him disgruntled. I also think it's possible that JZ is happy with his role and isn't interested in Austin's position.

I don't have strong opinions on JZ, but they are generally favorable. What has he done, that was for sure his call, that you've been unhappy with?
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One of the first deals he ever made was the Favors salary dump that still hangs over us.

You can say maybe Ryan mandated a salary dump deal but I’m sure you could have traded a couple seconds instead I don’t know.
 
Elizah Huge said:
We don’t want Zanik in that position and neither does Ryan.
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This. JZ is a lawyer and Ainge's are basketball lifers.

DA never wanted ot signed up for a full time job. He wants to travel and watch college games with a heavy dose of golf mixed in (he loves to watch golf as well).

Austin an actual full time POBO who looks over everything with basketball glasses on.
 
Elizah Huge said:
This morning’s episode of Locked on Jazz from was extremely good. I recommend that every Jazz fan give it a listen.

Biggest takeaway and thing I agree with Locke on is, it would be negligent to not be bad next year. We absolutely need to keep our pick. The first-round obligation ends to OKC if we are picking 1-8 in the 2026 draft. It then immediately turns into seconds. That alone is enough to justify being bad again. Also, you know the top of the 2026 class is insanely good with Dybantsa, Boozer, and Peterson.

Another good point is it is likely going to be easier to make deals now with Austin Ainge at the helm. We have been trying to extract and squeeze the absolute most value out of any deal we’ve done the past few years. We missed out on deals because of that and there are some deals we likely should have compromised and done regardless.

I think we end up dealing some vets like John Collins, Collin Sexton, and Jordan Clarkson. We likely take calls on Lauri Markkanen as well.
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About to listen now, but agree with both those points. I'm glad we (hopefully) won't have the stubborn Ainge handling the departure of our vets. If there's one thing you can point to that I dislike about what DA did here it's how long it took him to transition into the tank. He tried to squeeze every ounce of value out of trades which made it take too long and it's questionable if we had even gotten the best value for extending it out. The ship has sailed to try to build forward and make the playoffs quickly. No room for F'ing around and finding out this year with the tank.
 
The tanking question by the ESPN700 reporter was presented so poorly... but it was quite obviously a question that Austin was expecting and had prepared to answer.

My biggest positive takeaway from his presser is that DA being a bargain hunter and a part time POBO days are over, and I feel more confident that Austin will make firm choices for better or for worse. He says the direction is up, but didnt define the "with who" part. Starting to build up with the rookie contract guys vs building up with the vets are two very different things.

I'm pretty disappointed that the Lauri question wasnt presented by anyone. The response was always gonna be political and nonchalant, but I still wanted to hear that question and see if he or Ryan flinches.
 
You guys are making too much of the “not tanking” quote.

I’d bet good money all he means is that he doesn’t plan to have Hardy bench the better players so they lose. This doesn’t mean he won’t do what it takes to lose games. What it more likely means is they’re going to look to trade veterans (Collins, Clarkson, Sexton, maybe Lauri) for assets.
 
A lot of people say retooling around Mitchell and Gobert was not possible because we didn't have enough future assets to make something happen. At the time we had owed our 22 FRP, which ironically ended up being Walker Kessler, and the OKC pick. It would be funny to give away that pick 4 years down the line so we can win 33 games.
 
RandyForRubio said:
You guys are making too much of the “not tanking” quote.

I’d bet good money all he means is that he doesn’t plan to have Hardy bench the better players so they lose. This doesn’t mean he won’t do what it takes to lose games. What it more likely means is they’re going to look to trade veterans (Collins, Clarkson, Sexton, maybe Lauri) for assets.
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Yeah people are being dumb on purpose
 
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