Milwaukee Bucks to poach Utah Jazz Assistant General Manager Justin Zanik

According to ESPN's Marc Stein, the Milwaukee Bucks are going to go forward with the rumored front office 'get' that was reported earlier this Spring and sign current Utah Jazz Assistant General Manger Justin Zanik to the identical position that he current holds.

One quick note away from this series: ESPN sources say Milwaukee is closing in on the hiring of Justin Zanik as assistant general manager

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 29, 2016

Zanik joined the Utah Jazz back in September 2013 and worked as the assistant GM under Dennis Lindsey. Zanik brought with him years of experience (15+) working with both Priority Sports and ASM Sports. These two agencies have represented a lot of NBA players over the years, and Zanik has a very healthy Rolodex as a result. Priority Sports has been responsible for over $1 Billion dollars in NBA contracts. ASM isn't far behind.

Some of the guys letting Priority Sports handle things right now are: Gordon Hayward, Bradley Beal, Mason Plumlee, Miles Plumlee, Marshall Plumlee, David Lee, DeMarre Carroll, Nick Young, Taj Gibson, Jared Dudley, Joe Ingles, Jon Leuer, Jason Smith, Ramon Sessions, Jose Calderon, Ronny Turiaf, Dahntay Jones, Andrew Nicholson, Will Bynum, Jeremy Evans, Carl Landry, Tim Hardaway Jr., Nik Stauskas, Mitch McGary, Adreian Payne, Daequan Cook, Alexis Ajinca, Justin Hamilton, Louis Amundson, Steve Novak, R.J. Hunter, Sam Dekker, Jannero Pargo, Austin Daye, Larry Nance Jr., Brandon Rush, and Kevin Murphy. You may notice that a lot of guys on that list have some level of Jazz experience.

Among the players that ASM Sports represents are: Kevin Garnett, Kyle Lowry, Kristaps Porzingis, Chauncey Billups, Andre Miller, Nerlens Noel, Serge Ibaka, Alec Burks, Marreese Speights, Ersan Ilyasova, Trevor Booker, Timofey Mozgov, Myles Turner, Kenyon Martin, Jordan Crawford, Devin Booker, Jodie Meeks, Milt Palacio, Eric Maynor, and Travis Leslie. Again, a bunch of Jazz players there too.

We can expect that the Milwaukee Bucks may gain that 'in' with both Priority and ASM now. And as a result, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Bucks get some of the players from both agencies in for pre-draft work outs, off-season work outs, Summer League teams, all the way up to possible trades and potential free agent signings. A lot of the guys the Jazz filled in the gaps with for their NBA DL team and 10-Day contracts happened to have some bloodline from these two agencies. If Zanik continues to be as an influential guy with his new crew as he was with the Jazz Brass then I would bet on it.

Of course, having Zanik join the Bucks now means that there's a strong knowledge and co-operation bond there between our front office and their front office. (This was that blood brother bond that Kevin O'Connor had with Billy King, which resulted in so many trades over the years.) But the question on most of our minds is "why did he take a parallel position in another front office?"

Well, the point here is that we assume that he will one day succeed their current General Manager John Hammond. There was no reasonable expectation to succeed Dennis Lindsey in Utah. And most people have ambition. Zanik does. Hence this move.

In the short term it hurts the Jazz, but there's the potential that it opens up an avenue for co-operation and dialog with an Eastern Conference, Small(er) Market team.