In 2013, Danny Ainge appointed Brad Stevens (36) as Celtics coach. In 2022, this same Danny Ainge has this time decided to appoint Will Hardy (34 years old) as coach of the Jazz, for the next five years. Passed by the Spurs bench to support Gregg Popovich between 2019 and 2021, he had been Ime Udoka’s assistant in Boston for a year.
Favorite for this position, the now successor to Quin Snyder on the Utah bench therefore becomes the youngest active coach in the NBA. Confirming his meteoric rise in the league, he who was still just a trainee in San Antonio a decade ago.
► Read also: who is Will Hardy, the former assistant of San Antonio and Boston?
It is therefore Will Hardy, an inexperienced coach – preferred to other assistants such as Adrian Griffin (Raptors), Alex Jensen (Jazz) and Joe Mazzulla (Celtics) – who will be in charge of the revival of Jazz. In all likelihood, Donovan Mitchell will be the centerpiece of this project, while Rudy Gobert is still not guaranteed to continue the adventure in this team, often well placed in the regular season, but constantly defeated in the playoffs.
Note that Danny Ainge, the general manager of the Salt Lake City franchise, has also named (as expected) David Fizdale as a GM assistant. There are therefore many movements in Utah and there could be others in the coming days…
