- The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins on Friday, March 28, with just nine games left in the regular season. The Grizzlies are in fifth place in the Western Conference.
- Jenkins, the team’s all-time winningest coach, led the Grizzlies to a 44-29 record this season and three playoff appearances in six seasons.
- The team named assistant and Finnish native Tuomas Iisalo as interim head coach.
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On Friday afternoon, the playoff-bound Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left in the regular season. The move stunned NBA fans and pundits across the league.
Why did Memphis fire Jenkins?
Jenkins, the franchise’s all-time winningest coach, was in his sixth season and had guided the team to a 44-29 record so far this year, good for fifth place in the Western Conference. They were as high as second place two weeks ago but hit a rough patch. The team lost four of the last five and 11 of their last 19 games since the All-Star break.
After Thursday night’s loss to top seed Oklahoma City, Jenkins was upbeat and gave no indication he knew his job was in jeopardy.
“Very encouraging. I mean, I love the fight going against the best team in the NBA,” said Jenkins. “You know, very encouraging signs about how we came in with the right fight and then also the tail end of a road trip. You know, these are games that sometimes you can be looking forward to going home, and we weren’t satisfied. We wanna progressively get better, the Sac game, the Portland game, the Clippers game. The second half of the Utah game is more reminiscent of who we are, and we came in here at the end of a two-week road trip and played great basketball until the end of the fourth quarter.”
What did the general manager have to say?
With rumors swirling in the NBA media circles that Jenkins had “lost the locker room,” Grizzlies General Manager Zach Kleiman did not detail why Memphis made the change, especially at this point in the season.
“I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons,” Grizzlies general manager Kleiman said in a statement. “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.”
That overall success includes making the playoffs three previous times and having back-to-back 50-win seasons in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Last year, after a slew of injuries to their best players, including superstar Ja Morant, the Grizzlies finished 27-55. Morant and Jenkins have also been seen arguing on the bench multiple times in the last couple of seasons.
What’s next for the Grizzlies?
With nine games to go, Memphis hopes to earn home court advantage in their first-round playoff series. However, they are just 2½ games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors, who are tied for the seventh playoff spot. Teams in seventh through 10th place in the standings must fight their way into the playoffs via the Play-In Tournament at the end of the regular season.
The team named assistant Tuomas Iisalo their interim head coach. Their next game is at home Saturday night, March 29, against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
