Katie Benzan is the new GM of the Salt Lake City Stars, the G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz. (Courtesy photo/Salt Lake City Stars)
Who would LeBron James play best with? Or how would Stephen Curry fit alongside so-and-so? Common banter for a couple of basketball junkies.
Little did she know she would find herself years later in position to evaluate players and build a real team. The former Harvard and Maryland standout, who briefly played for the Washington Mystics, was named the general manager of the Salt Lake City Stars, the G League affiliate of the Utah Jazz, on Tuesday. The 27-year-old becomes the youngest active GM in the league and the youngest female GM in G League history.
Benzan didn’t see this coming so quickly after joining the Jazz organization in 2022, but she has rapidly risen through the ranks and could be on a path to bigger NBA front-office positions.
“It still feels a bit surreal to say,” Benzan said. “I don’t get overwhelmed too often. … But I do have moments on the phone with my mom where I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, is this real?’”
This wasn’t the game plan for Benzan once her days ended with a three-game WNBA stint in 2022. She knew she wanted to stay involved in basketball, and a move to broadcast journalism seemed to be pathway.
Then she got the opportunity with the organization in 2022 as a basketball operations generalist, which put her in draft meetings, the scouting room and meetings with strategy and analytics teams. Duties included scheduling flights and logistics, arranging credentials for scouts and making sure scouting reports were clean. Two years later, Benzan was promoted to assistant GM of the Stars and Jazz coordinator of pro scouting.
Benzan said her younger self probably wouldn’t believe the way things have unfolded.
“I’ve just always been the type of person to just live in the present,” Benzan said. “Even just going back a couple years, it was more just — finish out the ‘W’ run as well as possible and we’ll figure out the next steps afterward.
The Jazz organization provides various paths of advancement from the G League program. Steve Wojciechowski was just promoted from head coach of the Stars to an NBA assistant under Will Hardy. The previous Stars coach, Scott Morrison made the same jump. Former Stars GM Marquis Newman was promoted to Jazz director of pro scouting, which opened the spot for Benzan.
Jazz General Manager Justin Zanik said he saw something in Benzan during her initial days and took notice of the ways she went above and beyond. He remembers her constructing a draft project evaluating 15 prospects with video — something he didn’t ask for. In addition to the Stars responsibilities, she is also the manager of pro scouting for the Jazz.
“The last three years, it’s kind of been a steady progression of giving her more and more responsibility,” Zanik said. “And she’s handled each step with a breeze. And while some people may think this is quick, she is absolutely ready for it.
“It’s a big job.”
The primary goal for the Stars is to develop players to make the draft. The Jazz have the Nos. 5, 21, 43 and 53 picks in the 2025 draft. If the team makes all those picks, multiple of those players will likely spend time with the Stars.
Benzan is charged with creating the roster around them, signed as free agents with one-year, minimum salary contracts (Exhibit 10) or managing those on two-way contracts that allows individuals to play for the NBA team and its G League affiliate. Benzan is already involved in hiring the next Stars coach to replace Wojciechowski and is regularly dealing with players and agents.
While keeping development the main goal, Benzan also wants to continue to win after the Stars had their first playoff victory last season. She’s still developing what she ultimately wants her rosters to look like, but she has two non-negotiables: IQ and toughness. That’s expected, considering the type of player she was on the court.
“You can go learn the CBA,” Zanik said. “There’s things that you can be taught and then there’s things that you just have to kind of have instincts for. How to deal with people no matter what their position was. And she’s a gracious, gracious person and has a demeanor that works very well with others, whether that’s managing up or managing down or with peers. She’s got that.”
Benzan played three years at Harvard and was named first-team Ivy League three years in a row and led the Ivy League in three-point percentage in 2017-18. She transferred to Maryland and helped the Terps win the Big Ten, advance to the Sweet 16 and become the highest-scoring team in the nation. She led the nation in three-point percentage in 2020-21 and was named Associated Press honorable mention all-America. She and an Iowa freshman named Caitlin Clark dueled with nine three-pointers apiece in a 111-93 Maryland victory in 2021.
Benzan went undrafted after graduating but was picked up by the Mystics and instantly became a fan favorite as the feisty 5-foot-6 point guard with range. That was her lone year in the league, and the future was unknown. Then came a move to Utah that changed the trajectory of her career.