Insider Reveals Top Candidates to Succeed Quin Snyder as Jazz Head Coach
The official hunt for the next head coach of the Utah Jazz is on. Quin Snyder resigned on Sunday, leaving a vacancy in one of the most sought-after positions in the NBA.
Immediately following the news, names were reported as initial candidates by Tony Jones of The Athletic. Those names included Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, Jazz assistant Alex Jensen, former Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts, Celtics assistant Will Hardy, Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, and Suns assistant Kevin Young.
This is a strong, diverse list of candidates that the Jazz will surely decide on in the coming weeks — before the start of free agency. So many factors will come into this decision, especially with the chosen candidate immediately facing a controversial locker room and the uncertain future of Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
The candidate will have big shoes to fill, and the Jazz will want the balance of a coach who can win while also demonstrating to Mitchell that they project future success. The likely future of the franchise is centered around Mitchell.
Believe it or not, the Jazz will choose Mitchell over him in any scenario. The future coach will have to build and develop a team around Mitchell’s talents, both offensively and defensively. Let’s take a look at the candidates and how they could fit that role.
Alex Jensen: The current assistant coach of the Jazz has been with the organization for the entirety of Mitchell’s career. As a coach since 2007, he is more than qualified but my inclination is that a coaching change would come from outside the organization, especially since so much fire has come on Snyder over the past couple of seasons.
Terry Stotts: Experience, experience, experience. Stotts is a great coach that had a similar body of work with the Portland Trail Blazers that Snyder had with the Jazz. Stotts is a great offensive-minded coach, and like I said before, he has the experience, especially with the egos of the NBA. He formed a great connection with NBA superstar Damian Lillard and was able to build great teams around his talent, while also managing locker room expectations.
Johnnie Bryant: Although he lacks the experience a lot of the other names on this list have, Bryant as previously reported has great connections across the league and possesses an ability to develop players of all types of talent. Whether he can win is up in the air, but he might be the choice that can work with Mitchell.
Will Hardy: Another coach with experience in short supply but he has learned under some great basketball minds. Hardy started his NBA coaching career working under Greg Popovich before moving on to become the top assistant to Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka. As we know, the Celtics are competing in the NBA finals and Udoka, Hardy, and the rest of their staff, are a huge reason for it.
Adrian Griffin: Aside from Stotts, Griffin touts one of the strongest resumes of the candidates, being an assistant coach since 2008. Coaching talents like Derrick Rose, Russel Westbrook, and Kawhi Leonard as they won the NBA Championship in 2019. If you can win with those players while managing personalities, he will present a strong case for the position.
Charles Lee: Another coach with championship experience, Lee helped coach the Milwaukee Bucks to their championship in 2021. He has the small market success and helped the Bucks develop the talent that built a contender.
Kevin Young: The Salt Lake-born native coached the Utah G league team from 2009-11. He has worked with Bret Brown and Monty Williams and helped get the Suns to the finals for a similarly built team as the Jazz.
The Takeaway
The Jazz front office faces a hard decision with a strong pool of candidates. They all have strong resumes but each lacks head-coaching experiences, with the exception of Stotts, or accolades that come with it.
Whether any of these candidates, including Stotts, have the ability to lead this team with the inevitable changes and expectations that come with it, is yet to be seen. With great influence from Mitchell, expect the choice to present the organization with the blueprint for establishing a new culture of winning while managing a fractured locker room.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @ArembaczNBA.
