What we are listening to the surprising dismissal of Taylor Jenkins’ grizzlies

Nothing in the recent history of the NBA can match the level of shock of the Dallas Mavericks who send Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers, but the Memphis Grizzlies separates with a widely respected coach Whose team was linked to the fourth place in the Western Conference, despite having faced significant injuries to key players, it made little for many within the League when it was announced on Friday – at least at first glance.

But when it came to Taylor Jenkins and his future in “Grind City”, the writing was on the wall last summer. And it was written in tears.

At the beginning of July, three months after a disastrous 27-55 year old season ended, the front office of Grizzlies, led by the executive vice-president of the basketball operations Zach Kleiman, made the unilateral choice to exchange five members of the Jenkins coach staff. For Jenkins, who was hired by Memphis as a coach for the first time in the summer of 2019 and continued to record more victories than any coach in the history of 30 years of the franchise (250-214), this meant saying goodbye to Blake Ahearn, Brad Jones, Scodonie Penn, Sonia Raman and Vitaly Potapenko. For championship and team sources, Jenkins got excited in those final exchanges with his coach’s colleagues.

While Jenkins consulted with the front-office on hiring for six substitutions to his staff, those final interactions between Jenkins and the assistants who was forced to shoot, according to sources of the League, would have given a restless tone for the season to come. While some close to the Grizzlies saw the situation, it was just a matter of time before Jenkins also leave.

The fourth place Grizzlies who let the 40-year-old Jenkins have gone to the League of surprise if only because of the time-with only a few remaining weeks in the regular season and with Jenkins under contract over 2024-25, according to a source of the championship. This team loaded with talents, nicknamed the next great western conference team, not long ago, has fallen in recent years. A record of Playoff Subpar (9-14) and record against over .500-più teams this season (11-20) has clearly damaged the cause of Jenkins, with championship sources indicating that the most recent struggles of the grizzies were the main reason why it was fired.

Former assistant Tuomas Iisalo, which the Grizzlies have taken on before this season, will take over as an interim coach head, announced the team. He and the colleague assistant of the new arrival Nate Laroche were guiding the forces behind Memphis who implemented an offense of renewed movement this season, which raised the grizzies in the sixth in points for possession, an adaptation encouraged by the front office. On Friday, Memphis also shot Laroche, as well as Patrick St. Andrews, another assistant assumed before the season, confirmed a source of the championship. In the end, Jenkins’ ridiculous organizational support is clear, combined with the decline of the Grizzlies in the last two months, he has done so.

Despite the All-Star Point guard, Ja Morant lacks 30 games due to an accident that the last six-memphis is 44-29. But the Grizzlies have recently fought, dropping 13 of the last 22 games after a start 35-16 that hit them second in the West at that moment. That stretch began on February 8 with a defeat for 125-112 against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the same group that limited to Memphis in the last game of Jenkins as the coach head.

The Grizzlies are unable to beat first -rate competition. They lost nine consecutive games against teams at 0.500 or higher than an average of 12.8 points.

The defense immersed itself during this failure of 22 games, on which Memphis is allowing 116.7 points per 100 possessions, 19th in the NBA. The return of the defensive candidate of the year Jaren Jackson Jr., who lost five games after tending the left ankle on March 3 and returned two weeks ago, did not solve the problems. The team was skipped at the first five in defense for most of the first half of the season. But in the previous weeks, they said sources in the championship, the Grizzlies worried a lot about the buy-in.

The breaking point came on Thursday, when they woke up against the best thunder of the NBA. After taking a two-point advantage less than eight minutes from the regulation, Memphis allowed a 28-5 race. Okc decimated the Grizzlies in an outbreak 125-104.

Even the victories have not been so sweet lately.

At the beginning of this week, during a bombing of 37 points of Utah Jazz, the initial guard Desmond Bane and the Santi Aldama reserve exchanged the thrusts on the bench after a disagreement on the defense. According to a source of the championship that witnessed the interaction of person, the effort – or his lack – was at the center of their friction.

It started when Bane asked a rhetorical question to Aldama.

“Will you guard someone?” cry.

Aldama replied: “F – Tu”, to which Bane fired, “No, F – Tu. Play more hard.”

Now it is the task of Isalo to persuade these Grizzlies to return to victory. Memphis prompted him to come from Europe this season with an agreement over the market for an assistant for a value of millions and also paid a Basketball Basketball Buyout, according to the championship sources. And although this is the initial NBA season of Iisalo, the Finnish native did first as a coach.

Just last season, he deployed an offense of movement similar to Memphis runs as head of the Paris basketball coach, which Iisalo helped wins in the leaders Cup and in the Eurocup championship. The inventive offense of Iisalo was quite impressive that, after leaving for the Grizzlies last summer, the search for Paris Basket for a substitute included a mandate, according to a source of the championship: no new coach could change the system. The team ended up taking the former NBA player Tiago Splitter, who is now carrying out the offense of Iisalo.

Most of his first year assistants, Memphis has renewed an offense that he previously fought in the half field. Once relying on the pick-and-rolls, it now leans on an intelligent cut and the movement out of the ball. The Grizzlies have fixed less screens than any other NBA team. This philosophical change was a point of dispute when this season progressed.

Around the League, meanwhile, the inevitable question in the wake of Jenkins’ decision is this: what does this mean for Morant’s future in Memphis?

Sources of the championship say that Morant, in particular, was upset that last summer the team let go of an assistant with whom he was particularly close, Ahearn, who worked with the twice all-star more than anyone else in the staff. In this season, Morant has worked more commonly with Laroche, a former coach with individual players who were in his first season as an NBA assistant and, like Iisalo, played a fundamental role in implementing the new offensive system.

Morant played all his career for Jenkins and remained in support of the coach until the end, said a source of the championship. In Morant, however, he didn’t like the new offense. He played in just 43 games this season, missing this more recent trait due to a knee tendon injury, while he also takes care of the pain in the right shoulder. But when he was on the pitch, according to a source of the championship, Morant complained of the new scheme, which takes away the ball from his hands and removes the screens he likes to use as a ball manager to play.

A source of the championship that saw Morant working with the Grizzlies recently said: “A few days it seems that he is ready to play, and a few days it seems that he doesn’t want to be there … because he hates the offense”.

Jenkins had started reinstalling some of the comedies in Morant I like, said a source of the championship, re-entering the pick-and-roll and other theatrical works that involve screens that Morant could use to free themselves. In this case, he made Kleiman angry and played a role in Jenkins’ fire, one could understand, but Laroche was the driving force behind the grizzies that went away from the balls of the ball to begin with – and he too leaves.

In other words, Memphis fired Morant’s boyfriend in Jenkins and the man is mainly responsible for the offense that did not like Morant. Iisalo, like Laroche, promotes a high pace and a cut. He has a saying: “3 to 3”, which means that the Grizzlies have to run from the defense to the 3-point line in three seconds-and is dangerous like any NBA player in transition. But when it comes to a player of Morant’s stellar power, the discussion never concerns if he adapts to the offense of a coach.

Morant, 25, is an all-star twice in the middle of a five-year contract of almost $ 200 million. He fought to stay healthy and was suspended for off -field accidents on several occasions. He could return to the field on Saturday against the Lakers, according to a source of the championship. In February, Kleiman publicly rejected, with the brute force, against the idea that Morent could exchange this summer.

“I cannot blame the other” managers “for having fantasized on us commercial Ja,” said Kleiman at that moment. “But this is precisely this – Fantasy. We are not exchanging Ja. He continues to underestimate Ja, this team and this city, and we will let our performance on the floor speak alone. I will not give this further oxygen absurdity and I can’t wait to return to basketball.”

At least two leaders of the League, however, have questioned Morant’s demand in the commercial market.

And shooting the only coach of Morant, while the Grizzlies are directed for the playoffs with only two weeks in the regular season, he will not bring questions about where, exactly, the franchise is direct. Or, especially in the championship circles, if Morant wants to stay there in the long term.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / Atletico; Photo: Joe Murphy / Nbae via Getty Images, Soobum IM / Getty Images)