Grrralaxy brain
Good morning. Memphis, on track to make the NBA playoffs in the tough Western Conference, fired their coach with nine games remaining. What are they thinking? Plus, we have reaction from a spicy weekend of NBA action. Let's basketball.
On Friday, the Memphis Grizzlies pulled off something that two months ago I would have said is exceedingly difficult in the modern NBA: they shocked everyone. The impact is a fraction of a fraction of that of the Luka Doncic trade, this event being the firing of Taylor Jenkins. But the shock is real because Memphis was on track for a top-6 seed (though the Grizzlies have been looking shaky in that position for a bit) and because there were nine games left in the season.
As of Monday morning, there appear to be no hints that this dismissal was due to off-court reasons. The Memphis front office retained Jenkins last summer but replaced basically his entire coaching staff, bringing in a couple of folks with no apparent ties to Jenkins, who hails from the Budenholzer branch of the Popovich coaching tree. Among those new faces: Tuomas Iisalo, a young-ish Finnish coach who appeared to have been a rising star in Europe and who became Jenkins' first assistant. He's now the interim head coach.
Why didn't Memphis fire Jenkins last summer? The Grizzlies were coming off of a brutal injury-ridden season in which Jenkins and the staff availed themselves well enough by elevating diamonds in the rough like Scotty Pippen Jr., Vince Williams Jr. and G.G. Jackson II. Perhaps Zach Kleiman, the Grizzlies' GM, didn't feel he had the justification to replace Jenkins given all that had befallen the roster.
Then why now?
One's first hunch would be that the team's stars – Ja Morant and Jaren Jackson Jr. in this case – had checked out on the head coach. That doesn't appear to be the case, though there is reporting out there that Morant prefers more pick-and-roll than is offered in the Grizzlies' current offense. But the new-fangled Memphis offense – covered in glorious detail early in March by the great James Herbert – isn't one of Jenkins' invention. It actually arrived with another offseason assistant coach, Noah LaRoche, who brought it from a D3 school in Maine.
So was Jenkins fired for insufficient fealty to the new program? Well, LaRoche was canned, too. So that's probably not the case. Iisalo purportedly ran a similar offense for the Parisian club he coached last season. And this is where my leading theory comes in.
Remember that Jenkins was plucked from relative obscurity when Kleiman hired him in 2019. Jenkins was just 34 at the time, and had been an NBA assistant coach under Budenholzer for six years. He wasn't on anyone's lips as the next assistant to get elevated.
Is Tuomas Iisalo Zach Kleiman's new Taylor Jenkins? Did Kleiman go to Paris and poach Iisalo because he sees something magical in the coach's near-term future, and because he, Kleiman, knew that Jenkins' Tennessee tenure would need to wrap up barring a deep playoff run? Having brought Iisalo to the NBA, did Kleiman fear that another team with a potential opening would jump on him at the end of the season? Or that a failed Memphis season would lead Iisalo back to Europe? Or that he, Kleiman, would have difficulty convincing his boss, Robert Pera, that firing Jenkins and hiring his top assistant was the right path in the summer?
By firing Jenkins now, just two weeks before the end of the regular season, Kleiman makes it clear to Iisalo that he could have a future in Memphis and gets a little bit of runway to see if the coach can mesh with Morant in this different role and if he can conjure up a miracle in the playoffs. If the Grizzlies can stabilize and hold a top-6 seed, they'll likely draw the Rockets, Lakers or Nuggets in Round 1. Memphis split its two November games against Denver and are 1-3 against both Houston and Los Angeles. (One of those Lakers losses was Saturday, in Iisalo's first game since being named interim head coach and Morant's first game back in a bit.) If Memphis crashes out, as everyone now expects, Kleiman can either retain Iisalo and look at roster moves (like trading Morant), retain Iisalo and convince himself next season with this core will be better, or move on from Iisalo.
After the firing, Kleiman claimed that "urgency is a core principle" the Grizzlies operate under. That feels like a wild statement – I must have missed that particular strain of pop psychology, and I'd like to revisit it – but it makes sense if you believe that Kleiman is deciding whether Iisalo, a Finnish coaching wunderkind, is the right long-term head coach for the Grizzlies as currently constructed. In that case, urgency is required: these nine games (eight now) plus a playoff series (hopefully) make up a crucial experiment before decisions need to be made. The stakes were lower when Kleiman took a leap of faith on Jenkins, but that comes with the territory of relative success, which Memphis has had in the Kleiman era. The Jenkins gambit worked. Will the Iisalo gambit follow suit?
Melodious News for a Monday Morning
Bill Simmons announced on his podcast Sunday night that Zach Lowe has joined The Ringer and will be writing and podcasting soon. Very cool!
Scores
Friday
Cavaliers 122, Pistons 133 | Box Score | Detroit beats the best team in the East without Cade Cunningham to clinch their first winning season since 2015-16.
Hornets 97, Raptors 108 | Box Score |
Clippers 132, Nets 100 | Box Score | If you haven't watched the Clippers lately: Kawhi Leonard looks extremely good.
Warriors 111, Pelicans 95 | Box Score
Suns 109, Timberwolves 124 | Box Score | Death, taxes and the Timberwolves walloping the Suns.
Knicks 116, Bucks 107 | Box Score | The Bucks go 0-3 against the Knicks on the season, which could really be a problem since Milwaukee is headed toward the No. 6 seed and Indiana probably isn't going to catch New York for No. 3.
Jazz 93, Nuggets 129 | Box Score | Who is this dude?
Saturday
Kings 91, Magic 121 | Box Score | Sacramento has no idea what it is, and Orlando might be figuring that question out again.
Nets 115, Wizards 112 | Box Score | Brooklyn with the win ...
Heat 118, Sixers 95 | Box Score | ... placing Philadelphia in sole possession of the league's fifth worst record (for now). That would mean a 64% chance the Sixers keep a top-6 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft in lieu of giving their selection to the Thunder.
Celtics 121, Spurs 111 | Box Score
Pacers 111, Thunder 132 | Box Score
Lakers 134, Grizzlies 127 | Box Score | Ja Morant returned in Tuomas Iisalo's debut and Memphis had a nice second half comeback. But the defense hasn't been there in months, and still isn't.
Mavericks 120, Bulls 119 | Box Score | Big win for Dallas. I'll say it again: what a credit to the players of that team to play through all of this.
Sunday
Clippers 122, Cavaliers 127 | Box Score | Cleveland kept punching L.A. in the mouth, and L.A. kept getting back up, even without Kawhi Leonard. The Cavaliers' full court pressure on James Harden was telling, as was how well Cleveland kept Ivica Zubac in check. Norman Powell tried.
Blazers 93, Knicks 110 | Box Score
Warriors 148, Spurs 106 | Box Score | Woof. Stephen Curry didn't even go off, the Warriors just couldn't miss.
Hornets 94, Pelicans 98 | Box Score | LaMelo Ball is done for the season by the way as he's having arthroscopic surgery on his ankle. The Hornets ended up 16-31 (.340) with him; they are 2-25 (.074) without him.
Pistons 104, Timberwolves 123 | Box Score | Biggest NBA brawl since Draymond Green choked Rudy Gobert. Folks have been noting that putting rookie Ron Holland II on the same team as Isaiah Stewart was probably a bad idea given both players' inclination to raise hands; sure enough, both Holland and Beef Stew were at the center of this one, along with Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo.
There's a baseline fan video that shows that the Pistons dudes definitely had the Wolves dudes in a terrible spot.
If you built NBA Jam style rosters of current NBA teammates but for a fighting game instead of basketball, Holland-Stewart and Naz-Donte would be some of the top seeds.
This fight got so gnarly that J.B. Bickerstaff and Pablo Prigioni got ejected. The issue there seemed to be Prigioni giving lip to Stewart as he was dragged away, which sparked Bickerstaff's physical defense.
In any case, the four players at the center of this are probably getting a suspension, especially since this leaked into the front rows. Also, this was a part of a basketball game. A moderately important one, too. The brawl should have disadvantaged Minnesota since they lost two key reserves, but the energy changed afterward and the Wolves took off. Rudy Gobert was kind of a monster.
Hawks 145, Bucks 124 | Box Score | The Bucks are in big trouble. What's the play after this season? They are a bit cornered. Anyways, new career high for Zaccharie Risacher.
Raptors 127, Sixers 109 | Box Score
Rockets 148, Suns 109 | Box Score | Brutal: Kevin Durant will get an MRI on his ankle after leaving this game early. It was already a blow-out by that point. Durant was on the court long enough to be involved in the play that sparked Dillon Brooks' ejection.
Get it out of your system now, bud. Playoffs are coming.
Schedule
It's an 8-game Monday with a rare TNT double-header. All times Eastern. Important games get asterisks.
Jazz at Hornets, 7
Kings at Pacers, 7*
Clippers at Magic, 7*
Heat at Wizards, 7
Celtics at Grizzlies, 7:30, TNT**
Bulls at Thunder, 8
Nets at Mavericks, 8:30*
Rockets at Lakers, 10, TNT***
Playoff race check-in coming Tuesday, paid subscribers only.
Be excellent to each other.
