Salt Lake City Stars Announce 2026-27 Basketball Staff

SALT LAKE CITY (September 30, 2026) — The Salt Lake City Stars, the official NBA G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz, announced today their basketball staff for the 2026-27 season under new general manager Shane Fenske and second-year head coach Rick Higgins.

Fenske has been named general manager of the Salt Lake City Stars while continuing in his role as assistant general manager for the Utah Jazz, a position he has held for the past two years. He previously served as the Jazz’s Vice President of Analytics and Insights. Before joining the organization in 2023, Fenske spent six seasons with the Boston Celtics, serving as a Basketball Operations and Salary Cap Analyst from 2020–23 and as a Basketball Operations Technology Developer from 2017–20.

A graduate of Yale University, Fenske also has prior experience with the Portland Trail Blazers and STATS LLC.

Higgins returns for his second season as head coach of the Stars after leading Salt Lake City to the 2025 Winter Showcase championship, the second in franchise history. Prior to joining the Stars, Higgins spent two seasons on Utah Jazz Head Coach Will Hardy’s staff and three seasons as an assistant coach with the Houston Rockets. He began his NBA coaching career with the Charlotte Hornets and also spent time as an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic. 

James Mays, Jia Perkins and Ryan Toolson return as assistant coaches, while Dwight Thorne II, Ben Resner and Ken Nakagawa join the staff as assistant coaches. Ryan Maslow enters his second season with the Stars and first as video coordinator, and Jaylon Simpson joins as coaching associate.

Thorne joins the Stars after serving on the coaching staff at Texas State. Prior to Texas State, he held assistant coaching roles at MSU Denver, UT Arlington and the University of Denver, along with a stint as a graduate assistant at Georgia Tech.

Nakagawa joins the Stars after five seasons at Arizona, spending three seasons as director of advanced scouting before serving two seasons as an assistant coach. He previously spent five seasons at Gonzaga and has also held roles with Long Beach State, the Japan Basketball Association and the Ugandan National Team.

Resner joins the Stars with 11 seasons of NBA G League coaching experience, including stops with Canton, Noblesville, Rio Grande Valley and Greensboro. He has also served as head coach of the Cape Breton Highlanders of the National Basketball League of Canada and Rayos de Hermosillo of CIBACOPA.

Additional returning staff members include Pete Clark (director of basketball operations), Abigail Abiva (head athletic trainer and Garrett Blakey (director of performance). New additions include Robby Byrne (assistant athletic trainer/physical therapist), Maranna Gunnerson (assistant athletic trainer), Aiden Welsh (equipment manager) and Noah Johnson (operations and nutrition assistant).

Higgins and the Stars open the 2026-27 season on the road against the Coachella Valley Lakers, the NBA G League affiliate of the Los Angeles Lakers, on Friday, Nov. 6, at 8 p.m. MT. The Stars make their home debut Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 10:30 a.m. MT, opening a back-to-back matinee series against the Rip City Remix at Delta Center.