He called Gobert and Mitchell "foundational players." When asked if the two All-Stars are talented enough to lead Utah to a championship, he said it wasn't just about them, but the supporting cast around them. When it comes to on-court personnel, he didn't sound like the Jazz were ready to blow the whole ship up. "It was a struggle for us to find some continuity this year in terms of inconsistency in the way you play." "There wasn't internal adversity," Zanik said. Still, Zanik disagreed with the notion that internal factors were the cause of Utah's unmet expectations. That was the backdrop to Utah's unceremonious end. Snyder even went off on a 19-minute soliloquy during a pregame availability to try and end some outside narratives, urging reporters to be "responsible" with numbers (all while giving less-than-accurate ones himself). On the court, the team was less than connected, and Mitchell's passing numbers to Gobert were heavily examined by fans. There were reports of discord between Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, and rumors that Quin Snyder was a candidate for other jobs (rumors, it should be noted, he didn't exactly shoot down). It's no secret it has been a tumultuous season. Zanik didn't have a lot of answers on Friday, but he did play a lot of defense. Has the title window closed? Has this group hit their ceiling? How much change is coming? There's a lot of questions for the Jazz brass after another early playoff exit. Yet, there he sat in front of the media addressing the team's failures and what could a busy summer. At the start of the season, he wouldn't have expected to be giving a postmortem before the calendar turned to May. SALT LAKE CITY - Utah Jazz general manager Justin Zanik was light on specifics Friday as he met with the media barely a half day removed from Utah's season-ending loss.