The Memphis Grizzlies have fired head coach Taylor Jenkins despite a 44-29 record and being on the verge of making the playoffs.
After a 35-16 start to the season, the team has been a mediocre 9-13 since. Injuries have been a factor all season, though, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Ja Morant among them.
There is belief that Jenkins no longer had command of the locker room and the Grizzlies felt this was the best option to salvage the situation ahead of the playoffs.
Having been as high as the second seed, the Grizzlies are now fifth in the West and 2.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Jenkins became the Grizzlies head coach in the 2019-20 season, amassing a 250-214 (.539) record. He leaves with the most wins in franchise history, ahead of Lionel Hollins.
This marks only the third time in NBA history that a coach leaves a team before season’s end despite having won at least 40 games in the season. The last occurrence was 2004-05 when Don Nelson departed the Mavs with a 42-22 record.
Larry Brown is the other after compiling a 47-29 record in 1982-83.
Lead assistant Tuomas Iisalo from Finland will serve as interim head coach.
The Grizzlies released the following statement via team president and GM of basketball operations Zach Kleiman:
“I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons. 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.”
Grizzlies’ Defensive Slide Factor In Decision
Since the All-Star break, Memphis has ranked 20th in defensive rating at 118.3 points allowed per-100 possessions. They ranked seventh in the first half of the season.
The other issue for the Grizzlies is that they were very good against bad teams but not so much against good teams. So far this season, Memphis has compiled a 33-9 record against sub-.500 teams but have gone just 11-20 against plus-.500 teams.
While it appears Jenkins had a clear strength in developing players, he wasn’t quite up to scratch with the X’s and O’s.
It will be very interesting to see how much of a difference this coaching change makes over the final nine regular season games and in the postseason.
