Jazz owner Ryan Smith declared during a Monday press conference that his new president of basketball operations, Austin Ainge, will have final say on personnel decisions.
“This is Austin’s show,” Smith said, per Sarah Todd of the Deseret News.
After spending 17 years with the Celtics, Ainge was chosen to head the Utah front office. His father, Danny Ainge, has been the franchise’s CEO and alternate governor since 2021.
The younger Ainge served as the Celtics’ director of player personnel and scouting until 2019 and had been their assistant GM for the past six years. Smith wanted to clear up any confusion regarding his team’s front office hierarchy.
“I’m sure there’s probably a lot of questions around organizational structure and design, and I’ve learned in business and also in the NBA, that every organization is set up a little different,” Smith said. “For us, Austin will be running the program. He’s got final recommendation to myself on any decisions that need to be made. I think it’s the job of both Justin (Zanik), Danny and myself to kind of plug into him. So hopefully that alleviates quite a few questions as to who has the final decision on roster and management and personnel.”
As for Zanik, the team’s GM, Smith claimed his role hasn’t changed.
“If you think about the skill set that Austin has, and JZ’s skill set, they actually work really well,” Smith said, per Andy Larsen of the Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link).
The hiring of the younger Ainge came together very quickly. Smith spoke with Ainge and told him that he wanted him to be president of basketball operations, according to Todd. Ainge called Smith back the next day and said that if he was going to hire him he wanted it to happen right away, noting that big offseason decisions were upcoming regarding the franchise’s rebuild.
“The biggest challenge for me was I had to call Danny, who was not in town, and say, ‘I hired your son,’” Smith said. “Danny and I built a lot of trust over the last 15 years, and I didn’t know at that point whether I completely lost all trust or he was going to say that it was the right move. Well, here we are, and so I couldn’t be more excited.”
Utah owns two first-rounders (fifth and 21st) and two second-rounders in this year’s draft, plus numerous extra first-rounders in future drafts acquired in trades.
“We have a ton of optionality, a lot of future picks, a lot of things we can do,” Austin Ainge said. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but I can’t wait to get started.”