The Mephis Grizzlies fired Taylor Jenkins With nine remaining games in the regular season. They fired him a day before receiving the Los Angeles Lakers, who have an identical record and, if the playoffs started today, they would find them in the first round.
TO Some observersThis was an impressive decision. TO othersThe moment was the only strange. This is because both of the following are true:
- The Grizzlies of Jenkins succeeded, both in their six years and this season specifically. Under their watch, they developed a long list of players, many of which were not lottery selections, and developed an identity based on boosting the rhythm and dominating the possession game. This season, despite the fact that Ja Morant lost 30 games, they are sixth in offensive efficiency and differential room at the point.
- You would not guess that Memphis is the fourth differential at the point based on how he has been playing lately. Morant has lost its last six games, but that is not an excuse for the team in the 19th position in defense from the All-Star Break, a section in which it was 8-11. In the season, the Grizzlies are 11-20 against teams above.
I found the new Memphis offensive system interesting enough to write a function about it. Even now, its efficiency of the medium court offensive is above the average, which represents a significant improvement on the rest of the Jenkins era. However, the Grizzles have reportedly Ford Not Only Jenkins and Assistant Coach Patrick St. Andrews (Which Jenkins At Two Previous Stops), But Noah Laroche, The Assistant Coach Who is One of the Architects of the Offense That Was Cplest Implemented at Division III St. Joseph’s College of Maine in 2018. (The other Architect, Then-St. Joe’s Head Coach Rob Sanicola, Is An Assistant Coach for The Memphis Hustle, The Grizzlies’ G League affiliated.)
The interim coach Tuomas Lisalo, who used similar concepts in a heavy pick-And-raw system in the Basketball in Paris last season and Telekom Bonn baskets before that, has the opportunity to stay beyond this season? Can you guide them through the hard stretch of schedule that is directly in front of them? (After the Lakers visit Memphis, the Boston Celtics will be there on Monday, the Golden State Warriors the next night). I am curious to find out. However, this at the end of the season, there is no perfect analogue for the situation in which he is walking.
In recent NBA History, the closest comparison that I can think of is the Cleveland Cavaliers shooting David Blatt and promoting Tyronn Lue in January 2016. It was exactly in the middle of the regular season and the cavs were 30-11, No. 1 at the East Conference. They occupied the third offensive place, the tenth defensive and, like these Grizzlies, differential room at the point. By explaining the decision, the then Cleveland GM David Griffin He said to journalists which was “measuring more than victories and losses.” He said he could not accept the “lack of spirit and connection” of the team, and that he felt he needed “to buy a set of values and principles in which we believe.” Even after winning, he said, he could feel that the commitment of the cavs was going back.
“I have done this for a long time, and I know how it is supposed to feel,” he said.
Griffin was claimed that June when Cleveland returned from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Warriors in the NBA finals. For Memphis, that should not be the bar. However, that situation reminds me of this, because the best way to explain it is that the team has not had the same spirit lately. Maybe the writing was on the wall for Jenkins when the team delivered the majority of its coaching staff, but I suspect that at least I would have had the opportunity to finish the season if the collective vibrations of the Grizzlies had been better on their recent road trip. Basically, they crumbled in the third quarter against the Los Angeles clippers and the fourth quarter against the Oklahoma City Thunder. During a waiting time in his game against Utah jazz, a game they were gain For 37 points, Desmond Bane put Santi Aldama in the bank.
Even more than usual, you can expect the NBA coaches to recover around Jenkins in the next few days, pointing out their history, the fact that Memphis is not a superceam and the various setbacks that Jenkins faced. (In addition to Morant’s injury, Jaren Jackson Jr. was lost five games earlier this month, and last week the Grizzlies lost Brandon Clarke due to a knee injury that ended the season). I can already hear the outrage: If winning 60% of its games does not protect you, what does it do?
This type of reaction is understandable. Sometimes, however, the decision to fire a coach is not strictly victories and losses, and it is not about history. Sometimes, the main office simply feels that something is wrong, that there is a disconnection, and that the current coach is not the guy to fix it.
