SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz are losing arguably their most important assistant coach.
The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday that Johnnie Bryant will be hired by the New York Knicks to be associate head coach under new head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Bryant, who played collegiately at the University of Utah, joined the Jazz staff in 2012 as a player development assistant and was promoted to assistant coach in 2014 when Quin Snyder was hired as head coach.
Throughout his time with the Jazz, Bryant has built a reputation as a great player developer, most notably being a central figure in the development of All-Stars Gordon Hayward and Donovan Mitchell.
The Jazz said Tuesday that Bryant will remain with the team in the NBA’s bubble in Orlando through the duration of their playoff run.
Bryant becomes the second key member in the Utah organization to leave for the Knicks over the past few months, as longtime vice president of player personnel Walt Perrin departed in May to become an assistant general manager in New York.
Bryant continues a pipeline of Jazz assistants under Snyder who have gotten promotions, as Igor Kokoskov was head coach of the Phoenix Suns and Antonio Lang is now an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers.