The Utah Jazz front office received something of a shake-up on Tuesday with Dennis Lindsey and Justin Zanik each receiving promotions with the team.
If you’ll grant me license for a clunky analogy — which is my specialty, really — it has felt like Justin Zanik has always been the bridesmaid, but never the bride in recent years. Long considered an exec on the rise in the Association, the Utah Jazz front office’s jack of all trades has been on the cusp landing multiple GM jobs, only to get passed over in the end.
Now, after five-plus years in Jazzland, a weird detour in Milwaukee that many expected would land him his big gig (but ultimately proved fruitless), and a near-miss with Philly in the wake of Bryan Colangelo’s controversial departure last June, Zanik is finally getting his long overdue GM spot.
And he didn’t even have to leave Salt Lake City to get it.
The Jazz announced on Tuesday that Zanik has been promoted to the role of GM, while Dennis Lindsey will assume the lofty mantle of VP of Basketball Operations.
Per team president Steve Starks, Lindsey will be able to further “provide executive leadership and overall strategic vision for Jazz basketball operations” in his new role, while Zanik will presumably handle more of the day-to-day duties of running the franchise’s personnel ops.
In some ways, this feels similar to arrangement Lindsey had with the Jazz and then-VP of Basketball Ops Kevin O’Connor when he first joined the Jazz back in 2012. However, while O’Connor was nearing the end of his time at the head of an NBA front office — and eventually settled into an advisory role — I would anticipate that the 1-2 punch of Lindsey and Zanik will be molding and shaping the Jazz roster together for the next several years.
During his time as assistant GM, Zanik, who is a former longtime player agent, had his hands in several different aspects of the team’s operations. He was a facilitator in contract negotiations, a capologist and also contributed to the team’s international scouting efforts and developmental league operations.
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The move to bump him up the food chain was a strong one by the Jazz. By all accounts, he’s a big-time asset to the organization. And virtually any time a GM job has opened up around the league, there’s been concern that Zanik and all he brings to the table would get snatched up by another team.
With him finally landing his big gig right here with the Jazz, it would seem that will be less of a concern going forward.
And given he and Lindsey tag-teaming the team’s bid to become a legitimate title contender, it’s hard not to feel good about the Jazz’s chances of making significant –and much-needed — progress on the roster front this offseason.