Working as R.C. Buford's assistant general manager with the San Antonio Spurs, Dennis Lindsey turned down GM jobs with other teams before joining the Utah Jazz in 2012.

Lindsey chose the Jazz because the ownership group reminded him of the Holt family, who own the Spurs.

“The credit goes to the Millers,” Lindsey told The Vertical on Sunday night. “If they would’ve set up short-term objectives, I would’ve capitulated to very short-term moves.

“Greg Miller pulled me aside soon after I was hired and told me, ‘We’re operators, not traders. We’re value spaced, so we want to do something that’s fundamentally sound.’ That – and having [consultant and ex-GM] Kevin O’Connor sitting next to me – gave a young executive a sense of calm.”

With the time to build a sustainable winner, Lindsey let Paul Millsap leave in free agency as they developed a young roster built around Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert, Derrick Favors and Rodney Hood.