Grizzlies couldn’t wait to fire Taylor Jenkins, and their bold, bizarre coaching changes needs an explanation

The Memphis Grizzlies made a bold and, in some ways, bizarre decision on Friday. They are moving on from head coach Taylor Jenkins just three weeks before the start of the NBA playoffs. The strange nature of this decision comes not just from the timing — though that is certainly eyebrow raising — but in some of the facts about this Grizzlies team. In a crowded Western Conference, they’re just a tiebreaker shy of being fourth in the conference, and a game-and-a-half behind the Denver Nuggets for the third spot.

Ja Morant has played only 43 games this season, and absences from injuries have weighed on a team that is 44-29 overall but only 16-14 without its brightest star. And Jenkins, a well-regarded coach who had been in his sixth year in Memphis, was 250-214 over that stretch, the most wins for a head coach in franchise history.

He’d led his teams to the playoffs three times, had notched back-to-back 50-win seasons, and was seen as an outstanding tactician. This version of the Grizz sits on the cusp of having a top-10 offense (currently 6th in the NBA) and defense (11th) — the mark of a team capable of deep playoff runs.

So let’s get into the boldness of the move: The timing of it, the rumblings that Jenkins’ rotations had grown frustrating for players, a recent 2-5 stretch and recurring problems beating good teams. In fact, Memphis has beaten only one winning team since the trade deadline, and that was against a Mavs squad missing most of its roster. 

So perhaps there’s a method to the madness here, reasoning to the what-are-they-doing timing that will become clear in the days, weeks or months ahead. Perhaps.

Because it better work, and there better be a plan. And maybe there is more to the story — an internal power struggle, dynamics at play as surprising as the move itself, or some other issue still buried beneath the news Jenkins is out. Or perhaps, as several NBA sources speculated as the league processed the news, Grizzlies General Manager Zach Kleiman simply lost faith in his coach.

“Sometimes,” a longtime GM told CBS Sports, “the Come to Jesus Meeting results in a crucifixion.” 

Whatever the case, Kleiman and Memphis better have a deeper and better explanation — or a serious solution on the horizon. Because now what happens in Memphis will be seen through one of two prisms.

Either the one that says the good things to follow came because of the boldness they showed in making such a big change at such a crucial and strange time. Or else the one, if things go badly, that reframe everything as, if only Jenkins were still here.

Just ask Jon Horst, the general manager in Milwaukee, about big changes for teams that don’t show outward signs of a need to hit the panic button in-season. Entering last season, after acquiring Damian Lillard, the Bucks were one of the favorites in the Eastern Conference. Then Horst fired head coach Adrian Griffin.

That was Jan. 23, 2024. Griffin had been in his first year as a head coach, and things seemed mostly to be going well. He had the league’s second-best offense, was 30-13, good for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference and, at the time, only three games behind the Boston Celtics.

His replacement, Doc Rivers, went 17-19 the rest of the way, and the Bucks finished third, 15 games behind Boston, before meekly losing in the first round of the playoffs as injury and malaise took hold. 

Today, the Bucks are battling with the Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers for the fourth and fifth spots in the conference, and the hopes of rival GMs that Giannis might get frustrated and eventually ask out have bubbled back up.

Things, you could say, did not go to plan after that bold, and stunning, move.

We don’t have all the details on the Jenkins news, and moving on from a head coach, even at a strange time, can certainly work. But the Nets firing Steve Nash in 2022 did not salvage that Kevin Duarnt-led team. Frank Vogel’s firing last year has not protected the Phoenix Suns from themselves. And so on.

Jenkins dismissal is a statement, and a gamble, by Memphis. That he was a problem. That they couldn’t wait for the summer. That, for whatever reason, he had to go right now.

The verdict on that decision starts to come due in three weeks, when interim head coach Tuomas Iisalo will start the process, in the playoffs, of showing us what this stunning move actually leads toward.

Jenkins’ days in Memphis are over. But now those who made that call may soon find it’s them who are under the microscope.