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Utah Jazz hire Jason Terry as Assistant Coach

Jason Terry is a fantastic addition and will provide invaluable experience and leadership to the Jazz’s coaching staff.

Grand Rapids Gold v Westchester Knicks Photo by Evan Yu/NBAE via Getty Images

Jason Terry was almost a part of the Utah Jazz in 2003 when he signed an offer sheet. Sadly, the Hawks would eventually match the offer sheet 14 days later, and it didn’t happen.

Today, almost 20 years later, Jason Terry will join the new Head Coach, Will Hardy, as an assistant coach and be a part of a new era of Jazz basketball.

It’s been a tumultuous summer as Danny Ainge and Justin Zanik have made some bold moves. They’ve already traded Donovan Mitchell’s close friend, Royce O’Neale to the Brooklyn Nets, didn’t match qualifying offers for Mitchell’s best friend Eric Paschall, and didn’t re-sign Trent Forrest, who was also close to Mitchell.

Oh, and I didn’t mention trading franchise cornerstone Rudy Gobert for an intense haul of picks? It bears mentioning that the haul was so big for Rudy Gobert that it had multiple GMs “bi#$%ing about it.”

You could say that’s a sign that the offseason is going well for Utah. Now, they’ve signed a respected coach and former player who comes with the experience of winning a championship.

If you’ll remember, the Jazz brought in Jason Terry to interview just a month ago for the head coaching position before eventually finalizing on Will Hardy.

Looking back at the Shams tweet, it’s interesting he mentioned that Terry was in the running for assistant coaching positions with other teams. Knowing that, it’s nice to see the Jazz were able to bring him on the team over other competing teams.

Yes, the Jazz are going to lose a lot of games next year, but that isn’t important at the initial stages of a rebuild, building a high-level coaching staff is. It won’t be long before the Jazz have high draft picks and developing players coming in, and you want a hungry, talented staff ready to build that talent. Jason Terry will be an important part of that staff and the Jazz’s future.

20 years ago, Jason Terry was almost a Jazzman. This time there’s no team that can keep him away from the Jazz.

It’s been a long wait, but welcome to the Utah Jazz family, Coach Terry!