Jazz add Watkinson, Guthrie to basketball staff


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz are growing their staff yet again. On Thursday, the Jazz announced the hirings of Jeff Watkinson as assistant coach of integrated player development, and Zach Guthrie as manager of basketball strategy and technology.

Watkinson's hiring was first reported by Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hawks strength and conditioning coach Jeff Watkinson leaving to take coaching job with Jazz. Story to come. — Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) June 9, 2015

For Watkinson, this will be the third stint during which he will work under Jazz coach Quin Snyder after working with him in Atlanta in the 2013-14 season and at the University of Missouri from 2001-06. Watkinson's also worked as a player trainer, being hired by players to improve their individual strength, conditioning and other skills.

Guthrie has ties to both Snyder and Jazz GM Dennis Lindsey with the San Antonio Spurs. While Guthrie's spent three years as the Orlando Magic's manager of advanced scouting, he was the assistant video coordinator with San Antonio before that. Guthrie, who is a San Antonio native, started as an intern in basketball operations with the Austin Toros when Snyder coached the team.

In general, it's not surprising the Jazz are adding another player development assistant with their wide array of young players, it simply makes sense to hire enough resources to develop them all.

But Guthrie's hiring as manager of basketball strategy/technology is interesting: It looks like the Jazz want to have someone who can present Snyder's system to the players in real time, maybe even using iPads on the bench. Clearly, everyone involved likes Guthrie, and want him as a voice in the coaches' meetings.

The other trend here: the growing Jazz staff. In the Kevin O'Connor/Jerry Sloan days, the Jazz kept a skeleton crew, one of the smallest operations staffs in the league. Under Lindsey and Snyder, clearly, that's not the case. Again, it's a matter of having as many resources as possible available for the improvement of the players on the roster.

Related stories

Most recent Sports stories

Related topics

SportsUtah Jazz
Andy Larsen

    ARE YOU GAME?

    From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
    By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

    KSL Weather Forecast