The hiring of Danny Ainge by the Utah Jazz is a signal for how involved Ryan Smith is in basketball decisions. Ainge and Smith are longtime friends with connections in Utah and are both from Eugene, Oregon.

"Ainge is not the person who makes the basketball decisions," said Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective Podcast. "He's the person who probably makes the strongest recommendation to the new owner, who is very involved and ultimately has the final say. Ryan Smith is, as he put it, he's like most modern ownership guys is the way he put it when I talked to him [last Wednesday] and he's going to make the final call.

"Now, he's going to rely, obviously, extremely heavily on the advice of Danny Ainge and Quin Snyder and Justin Zanik. And Ainge, I'm sure, will have the loudest voice. But this is Ryan Smith's show."

"I don't think there's any question about that," replied Tim Bontemps. "The fact that it's Ryan Smith's show is the reason Danny Ainge is in Utah. Going back to even before last season ended, there was talk about this maybe happening in some form."

The Utah Jazz have hired Danny Ainge to oversee basketball operations while also naming him alternate governor and CEO of Jazz Basketball and the Smith Entertainment Group.

Ainge will work closely with Utah general manager Justin Zanik.

"Rarely do you get an opportunity to come into a franchise that is this close to being a special team," Ainge told ESPN. "It's a very unique opportunity for all of those reasons."

Ainge stepped down as president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics in June.

Donovan Mitchell and DeMar DeRozan have been named the NBA's Players of the Week for Week 7.

Mitchell averaged 33.0 points and 5.7 assists as the Utah Jazz went 3-0.

DeRozan averaged 30.3 points and 5.7 assists as the Chicago Bulls went 3-0.