Grizzlies separate with coach Taylor Jenkins

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On Friday, Memphis’ Grizzlies dismissed Taylor Jenkins, their most victorious coach, with the team who struggled and risks losing a home advantage for the playoffs.

Still sitting in n ° 5 in the classification of the Western Conference, the grizzly guides decided to throw Jenkins and waited on Friday evening to announce the assistant Tuomas Iisalo as an acting chief coach for the rest of this season.

Iisalo only joined the NBA as a main assistant of Jenkins before the start of this season, becoming the first coach born in the NBA Finnish. The native of Helsinki played and trained in Europe, including in 2024, while he was head coach of Paris Basketball winning Eurocup and honors as a coach of the year of this league. He also trained Telekom Bonn sneakers between 2021-23 and Crailshem Merlins between 2016 and 2021.

THE @memgrizz Today announced that they had separated with head coach Taylor Jenkins. pic.twitter.com/92pak2nssn

– Grizzlies Pr (@grizzliespr) March 28, 2025

Jenkins led the Grizzlies for six seasons. He was released with the team about to play three home games in four days from Saturday – first the Lakers, then Boston on Monday, then Golden State on Tuesday.

It starts a section where eight of the last nine opponents of Memphis are either eliminatory clubs, or by competing in a place of play. But it is always possible, at least mathematically, that Memphis can return to n ° 2 to the west, and it is very unlikely that the grizzlyats fall into the range of play tournaments.

However, Memphis decided it was time to change.

“It was a difficult decision, given the coherent and tangible development of our players and the overall success under the direction of Taylor,” said Zach Kleiman, president and managing director of basketball operations grizzly ones, in a statement.

Grizzlies will not train on Friday and have not announced any availability of the media.

Jenkins was the fifth longest coach with his current League club, behind Gregg Popovich de San Antonio, Erik Spoelstra de Miami, Steve Kerr of Golden State and Michael Malone de Denver – all of which won the NBA titles.

Until now, the results against the best teams in the League were not a good sign for Jenkins.

The Grizzlies were 0-4 against Oklahoma City, losing these matches by 24, 13, 17 and 21 points. They are 3-6 so far this season against Houston, Denver and the Lakers, the next three teams in front of them in the West.

And it was a trend all season for Memphis. Grizzlies were really good against the sub500 teams, but fought powerfully against winning clubs.

Against the other 13 teams which are currently greater than 0,500, the Grizzlies have a 11-20 sheet this season and are upgraded from 77 points. Against the 16 clubs at 0,500 or worse, the grizzly greeks have a 33-9 sheet, exceeding these opponents of 462 points.

Jenkins, with a career record of 250-214, passed Lionel Hollins for most victories in the history of the franchise on November 20 with a victory against the 76ers of Philadelphia. He also trained the most matches in the history of the Grizzlies, with the launch of the franchise in 1995.

He took Memphis to the playoffs three times during his mandate, but only reached the second round once.

During the 2021-222 season, the team won 56 games for the grizzly ones in a season under Jenkins. The Grizzlies captured the southwest division and were a seeded n ° 2 to the west. They ousted the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round, but lost against Golden State in the second with the star Ja more dealing with an injury.

Jenkins replaced JB Bickerstaff, who was dismissed after failing to make the playoffs during the 2018-19 season. He had been assistant at the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks, both working for coach Mike Budenholzer.

He also served a passage in the organization of San Antonio Spurs, finally becoming head coach of the G League Spurs team in Austin.

The arrival of Jenkins in Memphis coincided with the fact that the Grizzlies wrote more than the overall choice n ° 2 in 2019. Memphis made the three consecutive seasons from 2021 to 2023. Then, the grizzly grozzles experienced a season placed with injuries to major players.

MORANT has only played nine games due to a suspension of 25 games and a right shoulder injury that ended his season. Compatriot Desmond Bane missed a considerable time with a sprained left ankle, and the front line Brandon Clarke reserve only managed six games due to a tear in the left Achille tendon.

It left Jenkins to manage the season with striker Jaren Jackson Jr. and a bunch of fortune queues, finally finishing 27-55.

This season, Jenkins has given its coache staff and has brought a new spacing offense. Despite the prey to turnover, Memphis spent much of the second season in the West. Other teams have jumped while the rough patch of the Grizzlies dropped them in fifth place.

Again, Jenkins has spent another season to assemble alignments around Domple at 43 games with various diseases, pain, bruises and sprains. Morant missed the match on Thursday evening, his sixth consequence, with a tense hamstrings.

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The basketball writer AP Tim Reynolds and the freelance writer AP Clay Bailey contributed to this report.