{"id":74255,"date":"2025-06-03T16:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/74255\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T16:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T16:22:11","slug":"austin-ainge-vows-no-tanking-as-utah-jazz-take-different-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/74255\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Ainge vows no tanking as Utah Jazz take different approach"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jazz President\/Basketball Operations Austin Ainge<\/a> declared that \u201cthings were going to be different under his reign\u201d at his introduction yesterday, according to Sarah Todd of the DESERET NEWS. Ainge was asked about tanking, manipulating minutes and holding out players to keep performances on the low end in order to get better lottery odds, and he was \u201ccrystal clear and did not skirt the subject in any way.\u201d Ainge said, \u201cYou won\u2019t see that this year.\u201d Todd wrote it was a \u201cmic drop moment\u201d of the press conference and a \u201cchange of direction that will majorly impact the team.\u201d The Jazz had previously \u201cintended for the tanking to last through the 2025-26 season.\u201d Ainge was not just saying what he has to say. Sources said that his words \u201cshould be taken seriously\u201d regarding the Jazz, who will \u201cnot be tanking next year\u201d (DESERET NEWS, 6\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

ALL ROADS LED TO HIM: In Salt Lake City, Kevin Reynolds noted Ainge will \u201chave final say in basketball decisions.\u201d Jazz owner Ryan Smith thinks that the addition of Ainge \u201cwill free up\u201d GM Justin Zanik and CEO Danny Ainge \u201cto focus on their roles.\u201d The Jazz left the president of basketball operations position open for the last two years. Danny did not want the role when he came to the organization. But it \u201cmeant Zanik and [Danny] Ainge were spread thin.\u201d Smith believes Austin \u201ccan alleviate that, while complementing Zanik and Danny Ainge\u2019s skill sets.\u201d He noted that Zanik\u2019s role \u201cwill not change.\u201d Austin did not \u201cput a timeline on when he thinks the Jazz will be competitive again, but he doesn\u2019t think it will be soon.\u201d One of the reasons he wanted to come to Utah was so \u201che could make the fundamental decisions that would affect that timeline.\u201d Reynolds: \u201cThis early in the rebuild, Ainge will have control of the direction of the program\u201d (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 6\/2<\/a>). NBCSPORTS.com\u2019s Kurt Helin noted while Austin is the son of Danny, Smith \u201cwanted to make sure everyone understood that this was not some nepo baby hire\u201d (NBCSPORTS.com, 6\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

STATUS REPORT: Todd in a separate piece noted the Jazz\u2019s GM remains the GM. Smith said that the hire of Ainge \u201cis not going to change Zanik\u2019s role — except for the fact that Zanik now reports to [Austin] Ainge.\u201d Todd: \u201cThe optics are a little strange considering Zanik has been general manager of the Jazz for the last six years and was never promoted to president of basketball operations and instead is now answering to someone whose previous highest position was assistant GM.\u201d If there are any \u201chard feelings or tensions about this hire, Zanik won\u2019t be the one to show them.\u201d It has \u201cpublicly and privately been noted that he enjoys the collaborative way the Jazz make decisions and welcomes input from all sides\u201d (DESERET NEWS, 6\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

PAST EXPERIENCES: In Boston, Adam Himmelsbach noted Austin had \u201ca variety of roles\u201d in his 17 years in the Celtics\u2019 front office. He spent the last six years as assistant GM, helping build the roster that won the NBA championship in 2024. A source said that Austin\u2019s departure \u201ctranspired quickly in recent days, and that the hiring of a replacement is not imminent.\u201d He was a finalist to become the Hornets\u2019 lead basketball exec in February 2024, but that job went to Nets Assistant GM Jeff Peterson. Himmelsbach added the timing \u201cmight appear less than ideal for a front office preparing for one of its most challenging offseasons in years.\u201d Celtics VP\/Basketball Operations Mike Zarren said that the team is \u201cprepared to move forward.\u201d For Austin, the opportunity to step into a lead role in a front office that \u201cremains in the early stages of a rebuild was too good to pass up\u201d (BOSTON GLOBE, 6\/2<\/a>). <\/p>\n

WON\u2019T BE THE SAME: NBCSPORTSBOSTON.com\u2019s Chris Forsberg wrote seeing the Celtics\u2019 \u201cbrain trust,\u201d which includes VP\/Team Operations & Organization Growth Allison Feaster, around TD Garden and on the road will \u201csimply feel different without Austin\u2019s presence.\u201d The \u201clingering question\u201d for the Celtics is \u201cwhether the team will infuse new blood in a front office role.\u201d The Celtics were \u201crumored to be interested in outside possibilities\u201d after GM Brad Stevens\u2019<\/a> elevation in 2021 but mainly stayed in-house while adding Feaster, who first joined the team during Danny\u2019s tenure. Forsberg: \u201cIn [Austin] Ainge, the Celtics are losing a whole bunch of institutional knowledge and someone who understood the vision of the team\u201d (NBCSPORTSBOSTON.com, 6\/2<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jazz President\/Basketball Operations Austin Ainge declared that \u201cthings were going to be different under his reign\u201d at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[7,423,7457,6,422,427,3972],"class_list":{"0":"post-74255","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-jazz","10":"tag-leadership","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-utah","13":"tag-utah-jazz","14":"tag-utahjazz"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114620356679255231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}