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Despite being relatively secure as the 5th place team in an incredibly tough Western Conference, the Memphis Grizzliesannounced that the team has fired Taylor Jenkins.
The team dismissed Jenkins earlier on Friday morning. His firing follows the Grizzlies' losing a tough game to the Thunder 125-104 on Thursday night. It's not really clear at this point why Jenkins is being removed. The team didn't bother to explain the rationale behind it.
The only thing we know is that the Grizzlies are moving on. Team GM Zach Kleiman released a statement following the team's shocking decision to let Jenkins go.
"I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons," Kleiman said. "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."
This is shocking. Lets go over everything we know about the firing so far.
That's unclear at this point. There certainly feels like there's more to Jenkins' firing than we think. Did he lose the locker room? Did a player signal to the front office that it was time to move on? There was a bit of drama with the team earlier this week when Desmond Bane and Santi Aldama got into it. But that doesn't feel like something that would get a coach fired.
The Grizzlies are 1-4 in their last five games. Those four losses were all by double-digits and came from the Thunder, Clippers, Trail Blazers and Kings. You could argue that the Grizzlies weren't in the best space possible heading into the playoffs.
But, considering the timing, it's hard to justify a bad losing skid as a reason to fire the coach of a 44-win team.
The Grizzlies have officially named Tumoas Iisalo the interim head coach of the team, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
He was the head coach of Paris Basketball last season and led the team to a Eurocup title. He left to be an assistant coach for the Grizzlies this season.
Of course, there have been mid-season firings before. Adrian Griffin was fired by the Milwaukee Bucks last season after starting the year 30-13. Milwaukee fired Griffin ahead of the All-Star break, so there was far more time to work with once the team made its new hire.
As far as later firings, Don Nelson was fired by the Mavericks in the 2004-2005 NBA season with just 18 games left in the year. The Mavericks were 42-22 on the year but Nelson and former owner Mark Cuban butted heads frequently about how the team should be playing. Cuban replaced Nelson with Avery Johnson for the final 18 games of the season.
That's probably as similar as things get here. But with just 10 games left, this is pretty unprecedented. Iisalo has his work cut out for him.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Everything we know about the Grizzlies firing Taylor Jenkins
Continue reading...
The team dismissed Jenkins earlier on Friday morning. His firing follows the Grizzlies' losing a tough game to the Thunder 125-104 on Thursday night. It's not really clear at this point why Jenkins is being removed. The team didn't bother to explain the rationale behind it.
The only thing we know is that the Grizzlies are moving on. Team GM Zach Kleiman released a statement following the team's shocking decision to let Jenkins go.
"I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons," Kleiman said. "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."
This is shocking. Lets go over everything we know about the firing so far.
Why did Jenkins get fired?
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That's unclear at this point. There certainly feels like there's more to Jenkins' firing than we think. Did he lose the locker room? Did a player signal to the front office that it was time to move on? There was a bit of drama with the team earlier this week when Desmond Bane and Santi Aldama got into it. But that doesn't feel like something that would get a coach fired.
The Grizzlies are 1-4 in their last five games. Those four losses were all by double-digits and came from the Thunder, Clippers, Trail Blazers and Kings. You could argue that the Grizzlies weren't in the best space possible heading into the playoffs.
But, considering the timing, it's hard to justify a bad losing skid as a reason to fire the coach of a 44-win team.
Who is replacing Jenkins?
The Grizzlies have officially named Tumoas Iisalo the interim head coach of the team, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.
He was the head coach of Paris Basketball last season and led the team to a Eurocup title. He left to be an assistant coach for the Grizzlies this season.
Have we ever seen anything like this before?
Of course, there have been mid-season firings before. Adrian Griffin was fired by the Milwaukee Bucks last season after starting the year 30-13. Milwaukee fired Griffin ahead of the All-Star break, so there was far more time to work with once the team made its new hire.
As far as later firings, Don Nelson was fired by the Mavericks in the 2004-2005 NBA season with just 18 games left in the year. The Mavericks were 42-22 on the year but Nelson and former owner Mark Cuban butted heads frequently about how the team should be playing. Cuban replaced Nelson with Avery Johnson for the final 18 games of the season.
That's probably as similar as things get here. But with just 10 games left, this is pretty unprecedented. Iisalo has his work cut out for him.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Everything we know about the Grizzlies firing Taylor Jenkins
Continue reading...
