In a move that shocked the NBA, the Memphis Grizzlies have fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games remaining in their season. The 44-29 Grizzlies are tied with the Lakers for the 4/5 seeds in the West and head into some critical games this weekend, including against those Lakers on Saturday.
“I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons,” Memphis general manager Zach Kleiman said in a statement. “This was a difficult decision given the consistent and tangible development of our players and overall success under Taylor’s leadership. I wish Taylor the very best going forward.”
Tuomas Iisalo will be the interim head coach for the remainder of this campaign, a role he had filled for the Grizzlies earlier this season when Jenkins missed games. Iisalo getting the interim job was not a surprise, but was first announced by Shams Charania of ESPN. Iisalo, a native of Finland who played and coached there, was the EuroCup champion coach last year. The Grizzllies also released assistant coaches Noah LaRoche and Patrick St. Andrews.
There had been growing frustration in Memphis with Jenkins and the team’s direction, with that came a lot of speculation about a possible coaching change in the offseason. Memphis is 8-11 since the All-Star break with the 16th-ranked offense and 20th-ranked defense in the league over that stretch, and they have beaten just one team with a record over .500 since Feb. 3 (and that was a Dallas team resting everyone). The Grizzlies had been average almost since the first of the year, despite being on pace for 49 wins. While injuries to players such as Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. contributed to the recent slide, there was some frustration that there has been less buy-in from the team’s best players, who were frustrated with Jenkins and his system. While the Grizzlies had made the playoffs three times with Jenkins as coach (it would have been four years in six after this season), they struggled in the postseason (9-14).
It’s still a massive leap from frustration to firing the coach with the most wins in franchise history just before the playoffs. The timing raised eyebrows around the league and led to questions about what else may have factored into the decision. The Grizzlies reportedly fired him in person on Friday morning.
Jenkins quickly becomes one of the top coaches on the market this summer when other teams make coaching changes. Although all those other teams will wait until the season ends to fire their coaches.
