It seemed like it was inevitable that Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy would end up in the rumor mill, one way or another.
More and more recently there have been rumblings, and quietly held conversations among those around the league, positing that Hardy could be on a short list to be be Gregg Popovich’s successor in San Antonio.
There are two caveats that need to be kept in mind when considering some of these rumors. First, Hardy is under contract with the Jazz through the 2026-27 season.
He originally signed a four-year deal with the team in 2022 that included a team option for a fifth season, and the Jazz picked up that option before the start of the 2024-25 campaign.
Second, we don’t know when Popovich is going to hang it up. He suffered a stroke in November, which led to assistant Mitch Johnson taking over for the remainder of the season, but there’s been no news on if Popovich intends on returning next season.
Here’s the thing, though. The Spurs job is not the only one that people have floated as a potential second stop for Hardy. The Jazz’s head coach is among the youngest in the league but has quickly garnered widespread respect.
Night in and night out, opposing coaches praise Hardy for being one of the smartest, brightest and best coaches in the league, and that’s despite him being at the helm of the tanking Jazz over the past three seasons.
But, Hardy did his best on Monday during the team’s end of season media availability to stop any rumors and scoffed at the idea that he would want to relocate in order to coach a winning or rising team, rather than one that it at the very bottom of the NBA.
“I’m all in, man,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. That’s a crazy scenario that you just brought up. I don’t see a world where that would happen, but I it doesn’t matter.
“I’m committed here. I’m under contract here. I told Ryan (Smith) and Danny (Ainge) and Justin (Zanik) that I want to be here for as long as I can.”
And, as if expecting that he would need to go even farther to really drive the point home, Hardy pointed to the longterm goals of the Jazz, beyond the tanking and the rebuilding efforts.
He wants people to believe that he fully intends on being the head coach in Utah when the tides turn for the Jazz.
“The goal for me is to put up a banner at Delta Center,” Hardy said. “I try to operate (with that in mind) every day, not just with my job or coaching our team, but how I try to be present in the community.
“Like, I’m putting my roots here in Utah. It’s not even a question for me. In some ways, my conviction has never been stronger in terms of wanting to execute our long term vision and ultimately win a championship.”
Of course, the decision is not completely Hardy’s. He needs to have the confidence of Smith, Ainge and Zanik, as well as the respect and confidence of the players he coaches, but it seems like all of those boxes are checked for the time being as well.
Every single player that was asked Monday said that they fully had Hardy’s back and believed that he was not just a good coach but a great one.
The players pointed to his ability to connect on a deep level with them and show that he cares about them beyond the context of what they do on the basketball court or even in a Jazz jersey.
He also earns the respect of the players in that he doesn’t show favoritism. Despite contract differences and years of experience between players, those on the Jazz roster truly believe that everyone is being held to the same standard.
Those are a few of the reasons that give the Jazz’s front office reason to believe they made the right choice in hiring Hardy to usher them through these rebuilding years, but do they think that Hardy will still be the right choice once the Jazz are actually trying to contend?
“Absolutely,” Zanik said, without skipping a beat. “If I had a vote, I honestly would cast my vote for Coach of the Year for Will Hardy.
“He’s an incredible teacher, incredible communicator, a great partner … even though we‘re a young team and we didn’t always do everything right, and things could get sloppy, he got them to play hard and to be invested for the season, no matter what the result was.”
Obviously there’s no crystal ball and there’s no way to know if the players will still be invested in three years or when the team looks completely different and has different types of players and personalities, but for now, Hardy says that he is here to stay.
And in a league wherein confidence in coaching seems fleeting, Hardy stands out as having strong and unwavering support from the front office, ownership and the players.
