JUNE 29: The Jazz have made it official, announcing in a press release that they’ve hired Hardy as their new head coach.
“Will Hardy is one of the brightest young leaders in the NBA,” Ainge said in a statement. “He understands the importance of setting a vision and creating a culture for players. He places great value on communication, player development and creating the most productive environment for players to succeed. His experience on coaching staffs that have made the NBA Finals and with USA Basketball are invaluable and have helped prepare him for this moment. We couldn’t be more excited for Will to lead the Jazz moving forward.”
JUNE 28: Celtics assistant Will Hardy is closing in on a deal with the Jazz to become the team’s new head coach, reports Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link). ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski confirms (via Twitter) that Hardy has been offered the job and is finalizing a deal with Utah.
Hardy, 34, will receive a five-year contract, according to Wojnarowski (Twitter link), who notes that Hardy will become the youngest active head coach in the league.
Hardy joined the Spurs’ video room as an intern in 2010 and remained with the organization for more than a decade, earning a promotion to Gregg Popovich‘s coaching staff in 2015. He made the move to Boston to become an assistant under Ime Udoka a year ago and spent the 2021/22 season as a Celtics assistant before receiving head coaching consideration from the Kings in the spring.
Hardy, who played college ball at Williams College in Massachusetts, also earned some consideration as a head coaching candidate in 2020, having been linked to the Pacers, Knicks, and Thunder when they were conducting coaching searches.
Marc Stein reported last week that Jazz CEO Danny Ainge wanted to hire an up-and-coming first-time head coach to replace Quin Snyder, who stepped down earlier this month after eight seasons with Utah. Stein added that Utah’s front office was impressed by Hardy and Suns assistant Kevin Young.
A couple days after Stein’s report, Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Hardy was a leading candidate for the position, with the Jazz also strongly considering Young. Other finalists included Joe Mazzulla, Adrian Griffin, and Alex Jensen, all of whom met with Jazz ownership this week, sources tell Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
The Jazz have made the postseason six seasons in a row, with a regular season winning percentage no worse than .585 over that span, but have failed to advance past the second round in the West. Utah lost in the first round to Dallas this past season, even though Mavericks star Luka Doncic was injured and missed the first three games of the series.
Hiring a young coach makes sense for Utah, as the team is in somewhat of a transitional phase. The Jazz obviously want to take the next step and become a legitimate title contender, but if they decide to pivot into a rebuild at some point, they’ll already have a coach who has experience working with young players, as Hardy led the Spurs’ Summer League squad from 2015-18.
Rory Maher contributed to this story.
Good choice. At least one team made a good hire this offseason (maybe the Lakers as well).
Kings gonna Kings and Hornets gonna Hornets (and yes I know they intended to hire Atkinson, but the fact that he got cold feet doesn’t speak well to the organization)
Hopefully this is a good hire. At least it’s not a retread. He gonna have some decent sized expectations to fulfill considering he’s replacing a very good coach in Snyder.
Yes, 11 yrs experience counting and starting as an intern, but so easy to become a HC in nba..
:(
Maybe if you are white and the city is Utah it is easy.
But he’s wearing a black mask in the picture!
(Why does HR run these picks)
Trolls be trollin’. What else is new?
Facts. Sloan, Snyder, Ainge, and now Hardy. Players regularly say Utah is the toughest place to play because what they. Tell me how I am wrong?
You’re conveniently leaving out Elgin Baylor and Ty Corbin huh?
First off, Utah is not a city. It is a state. Better repeat geography.
There’s a certain mentality that Utah coaches need to have. That doesn’t mean they have to be white. They regularly hire all colors and backgrounds in every position they have. The problem with your argument is that there hasn’t been that many head coaches in Utah total. The Jazz hire for longevity with their head coaching hires. Snyder stepped down, but he still lasted 8 years? There aren’t that many places that pick the right coach and stick with it for so long.
On the other hand, I do see your point. From the outside it does look like they pick a certain race. I also thought it would’ve been nice for them to hire Griffin or Bryant as a side benefit for PR reasons and for relatability, but only if they were the best option.
Keep in mind, the Utah Jazz were only choosing from a small handful of possibilities compared what say colleges would choose from. NBA head coaches can be from the college ranks but that’s pretty rare. Most of the time they are assistant coaches or coaches in the NBA, G-League, or some other pro league. When a college coach gets hired it’s big news because most teams aren’t willing to risk their franchise with that particular tier of coaching experience.
Of course, there are some college coaches who have been there a long time and would be great NBA coaches, but they rarely leave because of job security. The Utah Jazz head coaching position is about as close to job security as you can get in the NBA. I’d say the Spurs and Jazz are the two best secure jobs you could get. They both hire for the long-term.
I doubt the Jazz were going to mess around with some PR hire and then regret it if they aren’t what they hoped for compared to some of these guys with a better resume or stated plan they liked. That’s really what it sounds like it came down to, that they were “blown away” by him. That, to me, sounds like he had a clear vision for what he saw the team should be like.
An NBA head coach needs to be a clear leader in the locker room and with the media. They need to share ideals and goals with the front office and ownership. You can’t fault the Jazz for finding more in common with Will Hardy culturally then the other candidates. I would hope it more had to do with his brain and not his skin. We’re not going to be privy to that kind of information. Let’s just hope it works out best for the team, as fans. =)
Well said.
And you Tom Nissalke and Frank?
And if they were hiring morons, Cobieven would be a sure in.
The truth hurts Arnold. At least Benboy came up with an educated response. You added nothing to the discussion.
“Damm, damm, damm.”
– Stephen A. Smith
Too young still. Utah will regret this before five years.
They could have had Alex Jenson. Well, they still do. He should move on tho.
All their finalists would be good choices. Will Hardy seems like a sharp guy. Reminds me of Erik Spoelstra. He just needs to watch his f-bombs around the camera and referees. Lol
I say that because Jerry Sloan used to get technical fouls all the time. They seem to be even more strict these days. I imagine Sloan would be thrown out of a lot more games if he coached now. =) haha
Here’s the complete list of head coaches for the Jazz franchise. List includes both cities:
New Orleans Jazz
———————————-
1 Scotty Robertson 1974
2 Elgin Baylor* 1974
3 Butch van Breda Kolff 1974–1976
4 Elgin Baylor 1976–1979
Utah Jazz
———————————–
5 Tom Nissalke 1979–1981
6 Frank Layden 1981–1988
7 Jerry Sloan 1988–2011
8 Tyrone Corbin 2011–2014
9 Quin Snyder 2014–2022
10 Will Hardy? 2022-
That means, on average, Utah Jazz head coaches have coached 691.6 games!! That’s around 8-9 seasons (if you include lockout seasons then it’s closer to 9)
Even more amazing considering they had 3 coaches in their first year. Take that away and the average tenure is even longer.
5. White
6. White
7. White
8. Black
9. White
10. White
Be as mad as you want. The Jazz have always come out against racism. Know that the pool of candidates had plenty of tough choices, including all colors. Of course, that’s never going to be good enough unless all coaches hired for the Jazz are black? Reality is some people are never satisfied no matter what you say.
Just be happy for the Jazz they found a coach they liked that is generally considered a smart hire to everyone else. =)
I am not mad. I am playing devil’s advocate. I just wanted a discussion to see what I was missing. Jazz fans deserve some good news
head look like a peanut
The delay in being able to announce this signing was due to the lengthy and extensive negotiations between the two sides. It took just forever to get Hardy to cave on two issues:
That the team name “Jazz” was the most STUPID in the entire NBA and didn’t need to be immediately changed.
AND
The coaching staff for Hardy shouldn’t include anyone named “Laurel” !!
Advise Conley be kept, and Hardy chill his first year. They will need a strategy, best developed after a year’s experience.