According to The Athletic 's Shams Charania, a new candidate to succeed Quin Snyder as head coach has emerged for the Utah Jazz. On Friday, Charania tweeted
“The Utah Jazz have received permission to interview NBA G League Grand Rapids Golds coach Jason Terry for the franchise’s head coaching job. Sources tell The Athletic. Terry is also under consideration for assistant positions with other NBA teams," Charaniatweeted.
This is an interesting development as Terry joins a diverse list of candidates that includes Terry Stotts, Johnnie Bryant, Alex Jensen, Adrian Griffin, and Will Hardy.
Jazz czar Danny Ainge shoudn’t be afraid to pull the trigger on a leader that doesn’t have NBA coaching experience as he proved with the hire of Brad Stevens.
Terry’s accomplishments as an NBA player include NBA Champion (Dallas Mavericks, NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2009), and he ranks No. 7 all-time in three-pointers.
Terry was recently the assistant coach for the University of Arizona (2020-21), and last year he was the head coach of Grand Rapids Gold of the NBA G league.
With little coach experience, one could say that Terry’s name being added to the list came out of left field. But he has always had a reputation of being a leader in the locker room, so we’ll see if he can parlay those attributes into an NBA coaching job this early in his coaching career.
In other news, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Kenny Atkinson has been hired by the Charlotte Hornets.
"Kenny Atkinson has agreed to a four-year deal to become the new coach of the Charlotte Hornets, sources tell ESPN," Wojnarowski tweeted.
Atkinson’s name had come up as a possible fit for the Jazz, but we can now scratch that name off the list.
Follow Patrick on Twitter @pbyrnes_patrick.
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