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SALT LAKE CITY — Alex Jensen will not be returning to the Utah Jazz bench next season.
The former University of Utah star and longest tenured Jazz assistant will not be retained by Jazz coach Will Hardy, KSL.com has confirmed. The Athletic was the first to report the news.
Jazz assistant Irv Roland will also not be retained.
Jensen had been with the organization for a decade and had worked under three different head coaches. He was first hired to Ty Corbin's staff in 2013 and remained when Quin Snyder took over in 2014.
Jensen rose to lead assistant during his time with Snyder, and served as interim coach when Snyder was out with a bout of COVID-19 during the 2021-22 season. He was also instrumental to Rudy Gobert's rise from a skinny teenager to a three-time Defensive Player of the Year.
His track record made him a candidate for numerous head coaching jobs over the last half decade.
Roland, meanwhile, joined the Jazz staff in September 2021. He had previously spent time with the Houston Rockets (where he gained favor with James Harden), the Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans.
Hardy, who inherited most of the staff after being hired last summer, spoke glowingly about his assistants a few days after the season.
"Our staff is as good as anybody in the league. We have a lot of really good coaches here," Hardy said. "They are as big a part of why we had the year we did as anything. Their voice on the court with the players, the individual work they did, the scouting they did, them dealing with a coach who sometimes would go off the path, they kept me in check."
However, due to the lack of turnover leading into Hardy's first seasons, it's not a surprise to see more changes coming this offseason. Hardy even hinted as such a couple days after the season concluded.
"This is a league of change. And what happens this offseason, I'm not sure," he said. "There's always been times where people get jobs and call about people that are on your staff. We never want to hold people back from great opportunities for them and their family."
