{"id":73361,"date":"2024-04-16T03:03:12","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T07:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=73361"},"modified":"2024-04-16T03:03:12","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T07:03:12","slug":"danny-ainge-celtics-connections-lead-jazz-front-office-hire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/16\/danny-ainge-celtics-connections-lead-jazz-front-office-hire\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Ainge\u2019s Celtics Connections Lead to Jazz Front Office Hire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>12-year NBA veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bradlav01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Avery Bradley<\/a> is joining the Utah Jazz as vice president of player development, per Sarah Todd of the Deseret News.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Avery Bradley is joining the Utah Jazz front office as vice president of player development according to team sources. Bradley has been around the team a lot this season and has been traveling with the team recently.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Sarah Todd (@NBASarah) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBASarah\/status\/1779581663682634186?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Bradley now reunites with Jazz CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge.<\/p>\n<p>Bradley played for Ainge\u2019s Boston Celtics while the latter was their president of basketball operations. Selected by the Celtics with the 19th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, he spent his first seven seasons in Boston.<\/p>\n<h2>Danny Ainge\u2019s Celtics Connections Lead to Jazz Front Office Hire<\/h2>\n<p>A defensive standout, Bradley has had extensive conversations with rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Keyonte George<\/a> \u2014the 16th overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft \u2014\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.deseret.com\/sports\/2024\/04\/14\/avery-bradley-joins-utah-jazz-front-office\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">as the season progressed<\/a>,\u201d per Todd.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the season, George <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/03\/17\/jazz-will-hardy-praises-keyonte-george-potential\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">has made tremendous strides<\/a> as an on-ball defender. Part of this is undoubtedly due to Jazz head coach Will Hardy\u2019s player development program and George\u2019s natural inclination to study film. Nonetheless, tutelage from <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2020\/03\/17\/boston-celtics-all-decade-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a two-time All-Defensive selection<\/a> couldn\u2019t have hurt.<\/p>\n<p>Former Jazz star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a> may have the best anecdote about Bradley\u2019s defensive acumen.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Donovan Mitchell &amp; Jeff Teague on GOING OFF in NBA bubble, Anthony Edwards battles | Club 520\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oLBmz1AWrbw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to former NBA guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/teaguje01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jeff Teague<\/a> last month on the Club 520 Podcast, Mitchell says:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;We were playing in Detroit, and there&#8217;s probably film of this, too. I was the point guard at the time. I don&#8217;t know how to play [the point]. My ball handle ain&#8217;t really like that. I had to stop bringing the ball up the court because he was on the floor. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ve ever felt like that with anybody else in the league. So, I got to give it to Avery.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Todd, Bradley \u201chas been seen on the sidelines prior to Jazz games and has been hanging around the team in an unofficial role\u201d since mid-December.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMore recently,\u201d Todd adds, \u201cBradley has been even more visible with the team, as he\u2019s traveled to away games and been seen giving advice to some of the younger guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Learning the Ropes<\/h3>\n<p>Earlier this season, Hardy spoke about Bradley, saying that the 33-year-old \u201cis somebody that I\u2019ve developed a relationship with\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time, it seemed as if Bradley was dipping his toes in the water. \u201cHe\u2019s somebody that wanted to come spend some time and see what we\u2019ve got going on,\u201d Hardy says.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cIt\u2019s good to have him in the gym hanging out with the guys and hanging out with the coaching staff. He\u2019s auditing this class. &#8230; He\u2019s auditing this side of the world, not being a player.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bradley last played <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2019\/07\/08\/avery-bradley-to-sign-with-los-angeles-lakers\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">in the 2021-22 season<\/a>, appearing in 62 games with the Los Angeles Lakers.<\/p>\n<p>With that being said, Bradley has played beside several Hall of Fame players. In Boston, Bradley learned the ropes from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garneke01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kevin Garnett<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/piercpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul Pierce<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/allenra02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ray Allen<\/a>. With the Lakers, Bradley was able to pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/j\/jamesle01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LeBron James<\/a>\u2019 brain.<\/p>\n<p>Bringing that knowledge and experience to the Jazz, particularly their young players, could prove invaluable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>12-year NBA veteran Avery Bradley is joining the Utah Jazz as vice president of player development, per Sarah Todd of the Deseret News. Avery Bradley is joining the Utah Jazz front office as vice president of player development according to team sources. Bradley has been around the team a lot this season and has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":73553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1608,5,62,3],"tags":[518,512,4665,4736],"class_list":["post-73361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jazz","category-basketball","category-celtics","category-nba","category-news","tag-avery-bradley","tag-danny-ainge","tag-keyonte-george","tag-will-hardy"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}