Shortly before noon on Friday, the Grizzlies announced that they were firing head coach Taylor Jenkins and assistant coaches Noah LaRoche and Patrick St. Andrews.
It comes on the heels of Thursday night’s brutal 125-104 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Here is the official release:
With only nine games left in the regular season, while your team is fighting for its life to stay out of the play-in tournament, it would not seem to be the optimal time to make a move such as firing your head coach, but here we are.
No interim coach has been officially named, but current Grizzlies’ lead assistant coach Tuomas Iisalo is the most likely choice.
Fans and critics of the team have called for Jenkins’ ouster at various points this season, and while this news might be unexpected for some, it really doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
The team has been in a noticeable slump since the all-star break, as evidenced by its 8-11 record. Jenkins appears to have lost the locker room’s confidence, and once the players lose faith in a coach, the relationship is nearly impossible to recover.
Jenkins was hired as part of the guard-change during the 2019 offseason, when longtime general manager Chris Wallace was replaced with Zach Kleiman. It was otherwise known as the end of the Grit and Grind era — marked by the trades of Marc Gasol and Mike Conley, the last two remaining members of the Core Four that lifted the team to relevance.
Jenkins’ tenure has been mostly positive, but it’s been bolstered by the arrival of star-caliber talent and the drafting and development of solid, dependable role players — areas that are largely outside his control.
Would a Taylor Jenkins-coached team without the Grizzlies’ big three of Jaren Jackson Jr., Ja Morant, and Desmond Bane be as successful, or has his ability been masked by Kleiman’s prowess in drafting players?
Spoiler alert: probably not.
Keeping a head coach who appears to have reached his ceiling would hinder the team now and in the long run. Given all the injuries they have been dealing with, the Grizzlies were never going to win the championship this year. So, while the timing is inconvenient, making such a major personnel change so close to the playoffs won’t necessarily prevent the team from hanging a championship banner in the rafters of FedExForum in the future.
