Grizzlies Part Ways With Taylor Jenkins

[Pickled Prunes]

Who cares? He deserved to finish the season. Grizzlies have a legit shot at going to WCF.

I agree that he deserved to finish the season (assuming this was a basketball decision) but WCF??? They would likely be facing OKC in the 2nd round, a team who has swept them in four games this season by a combined 75 points. If they get out of the 4-5 matchup they would likely face two of DEN, HOU and LAC.

LAC has gone 3-1 vs. MEM, the one win was by 1 point.
HOU has gone 3-1 vs. MEM, the one win was by 1 point.
DEN has gone 1-1 vs. MEM with one game remaining, but DEN is clearly the better team.

No, they had no shot.

And some messiah coach is going to come in and get Grizzlies past OKC? It’s like Sixers replacing Doc with Nurse and he’s driven them right into the dumpster.

You are right about MEM not getting past OKC (or almost anyone else) in the West. But a lot more happened in PHI than just a coaching change.

[puja21]

Just saw a stat

Jenkins hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record since February 3

The team he beat was the Mavericks, who were missing eight players

Who cares? He deserved to finish the season. Grizzlies have a legit shot at going to WCF.

"Deserves" is a silly take

Does the owner/FO care about a "chance" at the WCF ?

I agree it's a bad firing, but every pro sports opportunity is controlled by someone above.

RE: who cares -- the thread was asking what the motivation was.
It's relevant because we see competent coaches are fired every year for losing streaks or losing the locker-room.

We saw Adrian Griffin fired at 30-13 (#2 seed?) by Horst/Bucks.
Vogel fired after 1 year going 49-33 (better finish than Monty Williams the year before).
We saw Denver fire George Karl 29 days after he won COTY.

The timing is different here, but no one thinks the Grizzlies have a title shot so why does it matter?
They could also still "make" the conf finals with Iisalo.
Just gotta win 8 games.
How much does firing Jenkins change their odds?
Vegas doesn't think very much