Memphis Grizzlies Fire Coach Taylor Jenkins

[wco81]

For those with opinions on the gun hand gestures. Either ban it for the whole league or stop talking about it. Was it emotionally charged to defy the league by Ja sure. But no player should be restricted from doing a gesture that 75% of the league has done. Mind you also Ja has been doing the gesture all season, so to now get penalized for it only adds to the psyche of being targeted which I’m sure Ja is feeling. Again either ban it in the offseason or leave it alone.

In my view there's a big difference if you point the gesture at nowhere in celebration of a teammate's shot, or directly at the opposing bench. Same gesture, different meaning.

Not only that, he's the only player who's gotten into trouble with real guns.

He's basically flipping off the league, daring them to penalize him again.

[NO-KG-AI]

For those with opinions on the gun hand gestures. Either ban it for the whole league or stop talking about it. Was it emotionally charged to defy the league by Ja sure. But no player should be restricted from doing a gesture that 75% of the league has done. Mind you also Ja has been doing the gesture all season, so to now get penalized for it only adds to the psyche of being targeted which I’m sure Ja is feeling. Again either ban it in the offseason or leave it alone.

The rest of the league didn’t have their entourage point guns at an opposing team. It’s the same as how Gilbert Arenas got punished harder for gestures after bringing a gun to work.

This ain’t about anybody else but Ja, because he’s the only one that keeps getting in trouble for gun stuff when the league keeps begging him to just not do the one thing lmfao. He is being targeted, because he’s the only one stupid enough to keep doing it.

[HMFFL]

So Ja and Buddy Field were warned by the NBA about their gun gestures earlier this week.

Apparently at the game in Miami tonight, Ja again made some gun gesture with his fingers or hands.

Daring the league to do something about it.

Fined for two of the three times he made the gesture last night.

Ja needs to grow up.

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM Forums mobile app

[cupcakesnake]

Jenkins lost the locker room. That's not anyone else's fault, is it?

Also, the Grizzles didn't just start losing now. They have been losing for quite some time. They are 2-8 in the last 10 games. But you may say that these last 3 losses play a role here so, fine, let's go further back.

Do you remember where the Grizzlies were at the All-Star break? They were 2nd in the West with a 36-18 record. And now their record is 44-32 and they're on the verge of falling out of the playoffs altogether. That means that they have only won 8 games post-ASG. And they've lost 14. 8-14 post-ASG.

Things were clearly going horribly before Jenkins was fired. Is it uncommon to fire a coach so late into the season while the team is still in the playoff run? Yeah, it is. But that doesn't mean that it's a mistake.

How often have fans hoped that their teams acted faster when things started going south? How often have fans accused their teams of waiting too long before going forward with a change that they all saw coming? Based on what I've seen and read on this forum, that's quite common.

Also, for what is worth, most Griz fans in this thread seem to agree with the decision to fire Jenkins. They don't seem upset by these news. It's the fans of other teams that were caught off-guard and surprised (myself included here). So, if the fans of the team are okay with it, why would I disagree? They know their team better than anyone.

To be fair, during that 8-14 stretch, Ja and Santi Aldama missed 8 games, Jaren missed 5. Brandon Clarke (their best on/off guy) missed 9 and is once again out for the season.

In general, in the Jenkins era, this team has had pretty bad injury problems.
- Last year was an obvious nightmare. Total write off season.
- Marcus Smart was supposed to be an important aquisition but played only 39 games in 2 seasons.
- They went into the 2023 playoffs vs. the Lakers with their entire center rotation out with injury, then lost Ja and Kennard during the series.
- In the 2022 playoffs, they lost Ja mid-series against the Warriors .
- Ja has missed basically half this teams games over the past 4 seasons.

Oh, I fully agree. Injuries have definitely played a huge role in Memphis' downfall every season. Sadly, injuries at inopportune times are enough to break a team. As a Pacers fan, I've seen this happen a couple of times. Danny Granger's injury played a significant role in the collapse of the ECF teams as he was the veteran leader that the team relied on. Domantas Sabonis' injury before the bubble made us completely irrelevant in the bubble playoffs, despite a good season before the injury. And Oladipo's injury caused the relationship between him and the FO to fracture completely which resulted in him asking out. Injuries can definitely derail an team that once looked promising. That's indisputable.

I'm also not sure I agree with your take that we should trust Memphis fans on this one. Fans are almost always rabid to fire a coach when the team is in anything less than a dream scenario. It's possible firing Jenkins was the right move, but I wouldn't use the fans as strong indicators. Fans do "know their team better than anyone" but they're also the most emotionally over-invested.

Fair point. There are certainly some fans that will always advocate for firing the coach the very moment that something goes awry. Coaches are the easiest scapegoat after all, both for fans and FOs. And, yeah, fans can definitely be emotionally over-invested.

But they are still the ones watching their team night in and night out. They are the ones that know their strengths and weaknesses, that know how players get along with each other, that see how their players act while on the bench and whether the climate in the locker room seems to be good or not. When a coach loses the locker room, that's pretty obvious to the fans who watch the team nightly.

I was pretty into that 2018 Pacers team in particular. Oladipo looked like the most well-rounded 2 guard in the NBA that year and was only 25. You had a super young 3&D center (Turner), another wrecking ball young big off the bench (Sabonis), my favorite multi-tool role player (Thadd Young) and super solid veterans in Darren Collison and Bogdan Bogdanovic. I was buying all the Pacers stock. Injuries like Oladipo's are pretty rare. A 25-year-old all-NBA guy basically never played a healthy minute in the NBA again. It was a lower key Derrick Rose moment for Indiana.

There's no way to say I'm correct about this but: I'm firmly against the general NBA front office strategy on coach firing. I think in the future we'll look back on the time teams would fire talented coaches because the vibes were off (he lost the lockerroom!), and laugh at how silly that was. Good coaches are pretty rare. Players these days move around like crazy but we treat every franchise guy like they're going to be the next Reggie Miller or Dirk Nowitzki. Carlisle got booted from Dallas because Luka felt he was a jerk, and now Luka is not even with the franchise. Some teams fire talented coach and spend years wandering the desert, going through coach after coach, waiting for another one that can spend 5 years with the franchise. There are often things happening behind the scenes that make for perfectly legit reasons to fire a coach. It could easily be the case with Jenkins. I'm not saying teams should never fire a coach. I just think the general strategy is way out of whack, and teams fire coaches way too easily. Maybe Memphis already has their next great coach. Or maybe... the Grizz just fired the best coach in franchise history and will spend the next half decade on the coaching carousel.

I agree that smart fans who watch their team a lot can offer insight on their coach's strategy as well as the general gossip produced by team specific beat reporters and broadcasters. Most fans, no matter the team, don't know anything about coaching and just blame coaches whenever anything is going wrong. I've seen too many irrational fan takes on their own coaches, and too few moments of solid insight, to feel comfortable leaning on team fans for insight on this.

[wco81]

So $75k fine, which really isn't going to be a deterrent for him, though if he does it again, NBA would probably raise the fines and maybe even consider more severe penalties.

Chris Vernon was citing all these other players who also do the finger gun gestures.

But who else got in trouble for brandishing real guns?

[Bad Bart]

So $75k fine, which really isn't going to be a deterrent for him, though if he does it again, NBA would probably raise the fines and maybe even consider more severe penalties.

Chris Vernon was citing all these other players who also do the finger gun gestures.

But who else got in trouble for brandishing real guns?

Chris Vernon strikes me as a sycophant that tries to cover it up by being loud. His thoughts hold no value as his goal is to push the company line, not provide anything insightful.

[dballislife]

now that ja knows he can get whatever he wants, hes being even more ja now

[tamaraw08]

now that ja knows he can get whatever he wants, hes being even more ja now

Ja Rule

[Karate Diop]

Grizz might have done Jenkins a favor. As they flop down the stretch and in the playoffs people are going to see TJ wasn't the problem.

[Nuntius]

I was pretty into that 2018 Pacers team in particular. Oladipo looked like the most well-rounded 2 guard in the NBA that year and was only 25. You had a super young 3&D center (Turner), another wrecking ball young big off the bench (Sabonis), my favorite multi-tool role player (Thadd Young) and super solid veterans in Darren Collison and Bogdan Bogdanovic. I was buying all the Pacers stock. Injuries like Oladipo's are pretty rare. A 25-year-old all-NBA guy basically never played a healthy minute in the NBA again. It was a lower key Derrick Rose moment for Indiana.

Yeah, what happened then was depressing as hell. And for this to come off the heels of PG's injury and his subsequent trade request? This was a tough time for Pacer fans.

There's no way to say I'm correct about this but: I'm firmly against the general NBA front office strategy on coach firing. I think in the future we'll look back on the time teams would fire talented coaches because the vibes were off (he lost the lockerroom!), and laugh at how silly that was. Good coaches are pretty rare. Players these days move around like crazy but we treat every franchise guy like they're going to be the next Reggie Miller or Dirk Nowitzki. Carlisle got booted from Dallas because Luka felt he was a jerk, and now Luka is not even with the franchise. Some teams fire talented coach and spend years wandering the desert, going through coach after coach, waiting for another one that can spend 5 years with the franchise. There are often things happening behind the scenes that make for perfectly legit reasons to fire a coach. It could easily be the case with Jenkins. I'm not saying teams should never fire a coach. I just think the general strategy is way out of whack, and teams fire coaches way too easily. Maybe Memphis already has their next great coach. Or maybe... the Grizz just fired the best coach in franchise history and will spend the next half decade on the coaching carousel.

I agree that smart fans who watch their team a lot can offer insight on their coach's strategy as well as the general gossip produced by team specific beat reporters and broadcasters. Most fans, no matter the team, don't know anything about coaching and just blame coaches whenever anything is going wrong. I've seen too many irrational fan takes on their own coaches, and too few moments of solid insight, to feel comfortable leaning on team fans for insight on this.

I feel you, believe me. Right around the time of PG's injury, there was a number of Pacer fans that were calling for Frank Vogel's head. I **** hated that and when Bird actually fired Vogel, I considered it a huge mistake. And, well, I do believe that the performance of the two ensuing Nates (McMillan and Bjorkgren) kinda proved the point that Vogel was better than this contigent of fans and the FO believed. Thankfully, we have Carlisle now and our coaching is solid. Rick is our first good coach since Frank, honestly.

I do agree with the overall point that it's way too easy to fire coaches and way too easy to scapegoat them. When it comes to our general outlook on this topic, at least, we don't disagree a whole lot.

[wco81]

Coaches are always going to be scapegoated because they make a fraction of what the stars make and they're the only other visible part of the organization.

They could fire the GM but the casual fans don't know who or what the GM looks like.

When a team underperforms, firing the coach is the easiest and cheapest way to signal to the fans that the team is going to fix it, so they keep buying tickets, watching the games on TV, buying merchandise, etc.

[NO-KG-AI]

I feel like a development coach who can win with and without his stars, with a tough/defensive mindset is just what my own team needs.

Feels like a homerun hire for the Pels.

[QMemphis]

For those with opinions on the gun hand gestures. Either ban it for the whole league or stop talking about it. Was it emotionally charged to defy the league by Ja sure. But no player should be restricted from doing a gesture that 75% of the league has done. Mind you also Ja has been doing the gesture all season, so to now get penalized for it only adds to the psyche of being targeted which I’m sure Ja is feeling. Again either ban it in the offseason or leave it alone.

The rest of the league didn’t have their entourage point guns at an opposing team. It’s the same as how Gilbert Arenas got punished harder for gestures after bringing a gun to work.

This ain’t about anybody else but Ja, because he’s the only one that keeps getting in trouble for gun stuff when the league keeps begging him to just not do the one thing lmfao. He is being targeted, because he’s the only one stupid enough to keep doing it.

Ja has done gun celebration all year. The league office not paying attention to their own product is their fault. You can’t make a set of rules different for one player to pile on. Ja has had no incidents this year yet now it’s okay for him to get targeted by opponents and NBA regarding something so silly. If the league wants to ban hand guns great ban them league wide.

[stillgotgame]

So Iiasolo was 4-5 leading the Grizz during the end of the regular season and then stumbled into the 8th seed in the playin.
Do the Grizz retain him as head coach next year if they get stomped by OKC in the first round? If so, why did they fire Jenkins again?
Offensively they look similar, defensively they appear lost.

[-Luke-]

Grizzlies retain Iisalo as head coach.

https://www.nba.com/grizzlies/news/memphis-grizzlies-name-tuomas-iisalo-head-coach

[knicksfan974]

Good decision by the Grizzlies. It will be interesting to see how the roster is modified in the offseason to better support Iisalo's concepts. Will Ja stay?

[BAMAFREAK]

Good decision by the Grizzlies. It will be interesting to see how the roster is modified in the offseason to better support Iisalo's concepts. Will Ja stay?

Unless we trade him, he has no other choice. But I think they hired this guy because his offense fits Ja. I would also think Ja signed off or at least let the FO know that he was cool with him before they confirmed the signing