After unexpectedly firing their head coach, even bigger changes could be on the horizon for the Memphis Grizzlies.
Firing a head coach this late in the season almost never works out for a team. Nevertheless, the Memphis Grizzlies felt it was necessary to part ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins with roughly two weeks left in the regular season. The Grizzlies will now be preparing for a potential playoff run with Tuomas Iisalo as the interim head coach.
Joining the team just this season, Iisalo was an assistant under Jenkins. Now he'll assume the role at the head of the bench as he attempts to get Memphis' season back on track before the start of the postseason.
The Memphis Grizzlies' struggles
At one point this season, the Grizzlies were in the conversation to finish as the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. However, this team has struggled mightily over the last six weeks of the season. Over that span, the Grizzlies have gone 8-13. Memphis has fallen all the way to 5th in the Western Conference standings and is just two games away from falling into the NBA Play-In Tournament.
Could we say that the primary reason Jenkins was fired is because of how the Grizzlies have struggled of late? I wouldn't make that leap, but the reporting is not exactly clear as to why Memphis decided to make this move.
In the words of NBA insider Marc Stein, this is a move that has "rocked the league." After all, it's not common to see this big of a move this late in the season. But, again, we may not know the entire story, and the Grizzlies' decision-makers clearly didn't believe they could continue forward with Jenkins leading the way.
"This decision was mine and mine only. "Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman
It's not a huge revelation for the team's general manager to take "blame" or "credit" for this move, but the real mystery continues to be not only the true reason why the move was made but also what level of impact will this decision have on the rest of the Grizzlis heading into the offseason.
Short of an unlikely deep playoff run, the Grizzlies were likely already in line for some changes this summer. A move this big suggests that, perhaps, anything and everything could be on the table as far as changes for Memphis are concerned.
The biggest storyline that should be monitored over the final stretch of the season for the Grizzlies revolves around how this is going to impact the future of Morant. How will he handle this move? How will it impact the way he operates on the offensive end of the floor, if at all? Does this make him less likely to potentially demand a trade heading into the offseason, or perhaps more likely?
With a team that was already struggling, these are natural questions that were already lingering around the ecosystem of the team. I'd imagine they're only going to get louder for the Grizzlies after shocking the league with this extremely late-season coaching change.