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It’s no secret that this upcoming offseason is an incredibly important one for the Utah Jazz. Now the Utah Jazz are setting the foundation to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible. According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Utah Jazz are reshaping their front office, a reorganization of sorts. Dennis Lindsey has now been elevated to the VP of Basketball Operations. He assumably will take over for Kevin O’Connor who was the senior VP of Basketball Operations for the Utah Jazz.
In Dennis Lindsey’s spot, Justin Zanik will take over. He will now manage the day to day operations of the Utah Jazz as the new General Manager. According to Woj, “Lindsey, the Jazz’s general manager since 2012, will take on a broader, strategic and leadership role and Zanik will become responsible for the day-to-day duties of running basketball operations.”
This has every look of Dennis Lindsey become more of a mentor for Justin Zanik while Zanik takes over the reins from Dennis Lindsey. This is a big move right before what could be an even more pivotal offseason. Dennis Lindsey is able to shape strategy for the franchise as a whole which now is being made even more in his image. He has his protege in Zanik as his General Manager, his choice in coach with Quin Snyder, and his cornerstone players, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, whom he drafted.
Justin Zanik started his career as a player agent and worked under Dennis Lindsey. This is a great move for Utah as Zanik has been highly sought after. Zanik gets to be taught in the ways of Dennis Lindsey and make his mark on the Utah Jazz. It also helps Utah to have a former player agent taking the lead on a pivotal offseason that will require landing an unrestricted free agent for Utah to take another step forward.
It will be interesting to watch the power dynamics of the Utah Jazz front office as year progresses. One thing to be watchful of is if this means Dennis Lindsey will be taking more of a backseat role with the organization or if he’ll still be very much in the thick of it. Is Kevin O’Connor now officially retired?