Memphis Grizzlies Fire Coach Taylor Jenkins

[Stannis]

Just reading up on Tuomas Iisalo.... It seems like the Grizzlies been looking for an excuse to make him the HC

Just reading the MemphisGrizzlies sub Reddit, everybody was thinking he was going to get swooped up by another NBA team after year 1.

[Stannis]

Something must have happened behind the scenes... Even if you think he was bad surely you wait until the end of the season if it's basketball related.
Not much to salvage from a coaching change now if it's about basketball.

I'm starting to think Tuomas Iisalo might have been getting offers as a HC elsewhere, so Grizzlies decided to keep him.

EDIT: Yeah, this is going to be my conclusion. Nothing else makes sense to me. If Grizzlies waited until after the playoffs, they risk losing Tuomas Iisalo.

[HotelVitale]

Wtf? He's been making that team overachieve and has had to deal with a lot of crap.

Some serious stuff behind the scenes must have been going down.

??? I thought he'd been kinda killing it with a weird often-injured roster for years now. Seems like that'd be enough to buy enough good will to get through a shaky time now. Must be some personality business behind the scenes.

They have a pretty good roster, Ja and JJJ are high-lotto picks who have already been all-NBA and DPOY. Bane is all-star level.

They've been killing it with late first round and second round picks who turn into very good rotation players.

If anything, they are playing poorly, especially lately. Though Ja isn't anything like he was a couple of seasons ago, before the guns thing.

I don't know if his injuries have been that bad or they've just been load managing him to make sure he's healthy for the playoffs. But he still seems unstoppable at end of game situations when he's going downhill.

Not trying to defend Jenkins or anything--I don't know enough about him or this year's team to judge--but I don't think this characterization of the roster talent seems right. I'd say they have a AS guy who's not playing particularly close to all-NBA level of the past couple years, and who's injured or missing games a lot (plus his little personal crisis stuff). And they have a talented defense-first big in JJJ, who's pretty strange on both ends of the court (also not knocking him but he only won DPOY cuz of inflated blocks stats, and those have literally been cut in half over the past two years). Bane is good but also a limited low-level AS at best. It's not a bad core but it's definitely not a high-level big three talent-wise for a PO team.

As for the role players and younger guys, when you see those guys continually stepping in and playing solid roles, that's one of the only things I think it's fair to give coaches and culture credit for. Especially the way MEM has kept competent play up even when all or most of the stars have been out. Also a lot of the young good picks you're talking about have missed huge chunks of the season this year (GG, Vince Williams, B Clarke) and the team has found other young guys to step up.

[Tor_Raps]

Wtf? He's been making that team overachieve and has had to deal with a lot of crap.

Some serious stuff behind the scenes must have been going down.

??? I thought he'd been kinda killing it with a weird often-injured roster for years now. Seems like that'd be enough to buy enough good will to get through a shaky time now. Must be some personality business behind the scenes.

They have a pretty good roster, Ja and JJJ are high-lotto picks who have already been all-NBA and DPOY. Bane is all-star level.

They've been killing it with late first round and second round picks who turn into very good rotation players.

If anything, they are playing poorly, especially lately. Though Ja isn't anything like he was a couple of seasons ago, before the guns thing.

I don't know if his injuries have been that bad or they've just been load managing him to make sure he's healthy for the playoffs. But he still seems unstoppable at end of game situations when he's going downhill.

Theyve been starting 2 damn rookies and Ja/Bane have been whatever. That Memphis team is definitely overachieving.

[-Luke-]

Just reading up on Tuomas Iisalo.... It seems like the Grizzlies been looking for an excuse to make him the HC

Just reading the MemphisGrizzlies sub Reddit, everybody was thinking he was going to get swooped up by another NBA team after year 1.

That's the only explanation that makes sense other than something ugly happened behind the scenes. Iisalo seems to be a great future coach. They were probably worried some other team would sign him soon.

[JustBuzzin]

Something definitely happened behind the scenes this makes no sense.

[SpurNani]

The Grizz under Jenkins were like the Western conference version of the Pacers. Both have a star PG, both have all star caliber players at the 4, both have a deep rotation of guys they play and they both play super high paced.

And like the Pacers, the Grizz weren’t looked at as a true contender despite their good records, just fun regular season teams.

[TorontoBarneys]

He slept with the owner/GM's wife.

[DudetheObscure]

He was gone after this season unless they made the Finals. The way he manages the roster is idiotic. OKC cooking them repeatedly was final straw.

If getting cooked by OKC was the final straw half the coaches in the NBA would be fired.

[Froob]

hmm uh ok??

[Yoshun]

He slept with the owner/GM's wife.

I'm absolutely ready to believe and spread this rumor.

[PushDaRock]

The Nico Harrison Effect lol

I suspect getting "Nico'd" will start being a thing.

[Yoshun]

Just reading up on Tuomas Iisalo.... It seems like the Grizzlies been looking for an excuse to make him the HC

Just reading the MemphisGrizzlies sub Reddit, everybody was thinking he was going to get swooped up by another NBA team after year 1.

This sounds true, but still, why now? They could wait until after the playoffs.

[VFX]

Makes no sense. Has to be some other factor involved.

Who are they going to hire now? Jacque Vaughn? Adrian Griffin?

[Stannis]

Just reading up on Tuomas Iisalo.... It seems like the Grizzlies been looking for an excuse to make him the HC

Just reading the MemphisGrizzlies sub Reddit, everybody was thinking he was going to get swooped up by another NBA team after year 1.

This sounds true, but still, why now? They could wait until after the playoffs.

I'm guessing they thought if they waited until after the playoffs, Tuomas Iisalo would have already gotten HC offers and decide to leave the Grizz.

[Capn'O]

I have a lot of questions.

[heatwillbeback]

I feel like there has to be a lot more to this story because it makes absolutely zero sense on its own.

[ConSarnit]

He was gone after this season unless they made the Finals. The way he manages the roster is idiotic. OKC cooking them repeatedly was final straw.

If getting cooked by OKC was the final straw half the coaches in the NBA would be fired.

Memphis fans reasons for the Jenkins firing (itt) doesn’t really make sense to me if they are looking to replace him with Lisalo.

If the criticisms are rotation related isn’t that largely as result of Lisalo’s offensive system? So the Grizz are going to fire Jenkins because of his rotations only to replace him with the guy who suggested those rotations? Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. It has to be something else.

[IllMagic04]

This is absurd. At least wait till the end of the season. There has to be something major behind the scenes

[TheNewEra]

He was gone after this season unless they made the Finals. The way he manages the roster is idiotic. OKC cooking them repeatedly was final straw.

okc is cooking the whole league