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Ja is on year 2 of his 5-year rookie extension.
The Grizzlies are 28-15 with Ja this year. They are 16-14 without him. Seems like he might be fairly impactful.
Definitely something behind the scenes here. I thought his teams played really hard and physical.
Ja is on year 2 of his 5-year rookie extension.
The Grizzlies are 28-15 with Ja this year. They are 16-14 without him. Seems like he might be fairly impactful.
Do not want….
find a proven winner.
It'd be pretty crazy to fire a coach just to elevate the assistant 3 weeks before the playoffs when they have the 4th best SRS in the league. Something big happened behind the scenes, has to be.
Jenkins is one.
Definitely agree with this. The only alternative is that the Grizzlies are Kangz level incompetent, which is not at all out of the realm of possibility.
I don't know whether Jenkins deserves all the credit, but I do admire how the Grizzlies have made a habit of getting the most out of the their roster. They've turned a bunch of min-contracts and two-way guys into actual NBA players. Pair that kind of development with the right GM and you've got a never-ending pipeline for talent and high value trade assets.
If Jenkins truly got fired simply because he couldn't control what appears to be an almost uncontrollable set of personalities, then he's about to have his choice of teams at one of the highest paid coaching salaries in the league. But if there are some shenanigans, the kind that cause a team to fire you right before the playoffs, then they must be Primo-level.
I'm definitely interested in Jenkins here. Just enough connection to the Spurs for the team to be able to sell continuity, but not enough of a connection to where Pop probably had very much influence on him. And he'll likely not be willing to come in and be Pop's puppet.
Also... what a crazy NBA season. Just need Stephen A to take that swing at Lebron to cap it off.
Top theories
1. The Stephen Jackson Effect: Jenkins got fired for not admitting that Pop was a better coach than him.
2. Memphis FO thinks his leadership is lacking due to not controlling his squad as players are fighting, etc. and/or sensing that Jenkins gave up on this team somehow. Since the offense they are running came from an assistant coach, maybe they are assuming they don't need him?
3. Door #3 of shadows and intrigue. Time will tell.
Never was there a more obvious move to make
Given spurs cluster they will find a way to mess it up
Watch the sniffers on Reddit:
“We don’t need Jenkins. Come back, Pop!”
Which is interesting because while many would assume that fact is a knock on Jenkins, I actually consider it a complement. Having the confidence to acknowledge that his subordinate has a good scheme and implementing it as opposed to just saying "its my way or the highway", its a good quality to have as a head coach. Ty Lue (who I also respect greatly as a coach) did something similar this season by turning over the defensive game planning to Jeff Van Gundy which has led to a far more successful Clippers team than expected.
The Spurs could do a lot worse (and currently are) than Taylor Jenkins, I hope he has interest in the job and I hope the Spurs give him serious consideration. I think his teams have overachieved every single year he has been a head coach when you take into account his roster and player availability.
Reading through some comments, Grizzlies fans felt like Jenkins is just a developmental coach who kept playing everyone even when the rotation needed to be shortened and stars had to play more.
Fits the Spurs philosophy, ~32mpg seems to be the limit, I'd be interested to see what he could do with some of our scrubs and players trying to put it together.
But first we need to deal with Pop situation. All the coaching talk is pointless until he announces he's done.
I'm secretly hoping he'll just show up at the Raptors game to have a farewell and retire.
While Iisalo is an offensive mastermind, we need to figure out our defense first. With everyone healthy and one more good wing defender, we can easily be a top5 defense as soon as the next season.
St. Andrews was Bud's assistant in Atlanta and Milwaukee up until 2023 when he joined Memphis.
Well that is certainly another twist! Also makes me want to speculate less that this was related to some off-the-court matter, unless Jenkins, LaRoche and St. Andrews were operating a gun running ring with Ja or gang banging the owners daughter or some .
This has got to be the craziest coaching move in league history. Maybe Iisalo did a Doc Rivers and ran a behind the scenes power grab?
"We have to give Mitch a chance"
I like Jenkins, but Mitch has been a good soldier. Idk how this will unfold in Spurs fashion
I reckon the Spurs could be pretty good team next season with a real NBA coach like Jenkins.
I've been hoping Quinn would get let go and we could pick him up, but this...this is a gift we should accept.... A proven HC and assistants...sign me up..
unbelievable and I wonder what he did because I don't think I would have fired him right before the playoffs for ordinary creative differences
what could he have done that wouldnt have drawn a "good soldier" compliment?
thrown chairs, etc?
I find it interesting that Taylor Jenkins is only 2 years older than Mitch Johnson and yet the difference in experience and quality between them is so huge. If the Spurs don't make a legitimate play to hire him due to consideration of Mitch Johnson it would be an epic fumble.
I disagree. I don't think there is a wrong time to fire a coach. I also think the number 1 candidate the grizzlies want to replace Jenkins is Iisalo, which is very specifically why they fired Jenkins now, because they want to let Iisalo run the show, to see how he does, and find out if he is or isn't the coach of them for the future, rather than wait to see next season or not see at all, since his name is hot in coaching circles and he could get offers somewhere else in the summer and just leave.
I do agree it is a players league, as it should be, and they probably are difficult to coach, because an nba player is in the top 1% in the world at what they do, and trying to manage people who are that good at what they do is extremely challenging, because they are well aware of the fact that they don't at all need you to be successful, but you absolutely need them. Gregg with 2 g's found this out the hard way with Kawhi and Lamarcus, one who demanded a trade and got it, one who demanded a trade and didn't, but literally ended up just walking away from the team and never coming back.
Probably an under the table agreement with him that they'll remove the interim designation in the summer. Jenkins' assistants just got axed as well.
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