{"id":131288,"date":"2025-03-28T13:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T17:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131288"},"modified":"2025-03-28T13:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T17:32:14","slug":"taylor-jenkins-out-who-steps-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/28\/taylor-jenkins-out-who-steps-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Jenkins Out of Memphis \u2013 Who Steps In?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies shocked the entire league by firing their head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left in the season. Two years ago, the Grizzlies were the up-and-coming team. Last year, injuries and suspension to Ja Morant<\/a> derailed their season. This year, they are back among the top teams in the crowded Western Conference, performing at a high level. So what more does the team want?<\/p>\n

Taylor Jenkins Out of Memphis \u2013 Who Steps In?<\/h2>\n

Jenkins leaves the team as the Grizzlies are sitting in fifth place in the Western Conference, despite their franchise player, Morant, playing only 43 games so far. The Grizzlies issued the following statement<\/a>, saying,<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons. This was a difficult decision, given the consistent and tangible development of our players and overall success under Taylor’s leadership. I wish Taylor the very best going forward.”<\/p>\n

Jenkins served as the head coach of the team since the 2019-20 season. That was the same season Ja was named Rookie of the Year. During his tenure, the team made the playoffs three times, losing in the first round twice, and making the Conference Semi-Finals once. They won 50+ games two times. After last season, the Grizzlies changed almost his entire coaching staff. Who will step in right now? The Grizzlies do not have a long-standing assistant coach on the bench who can make a seamless transition.<\/p>\n

Did the Grizzlies Outdo the Bucks?<\/h3>\n

Firing a coach three weeks before the playoffs<\/a> might be one of the worst decisions a franchise can make. It looks like the Memphis Grizzlies looked at the Milwaukee Bucks from last year, and said, \u201cHold my beer\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Bucks fired Adrian Griffin who won nearly 70% of their games and was 30-13<\/a> at the time. The Bucks were in second place in the Eastern Conference, and afterward, their season went down. Truth be told, a winning coach doesn\u2019t get fired for no reason just a few weeks before the playoffs. The Bucks fired Griffin after his worsened relationship with star player Giannis Antetokounmpo <\/a>and that was months before the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Who Can Take Over?<\/h3>\n

When you fire a coach three weeks before the playoffs, perhaps you have a quality candidate to step in besides promoting an assistant. Even if they promote an assistant for the rest of the season Memphis could be eyeing an experienced head coach in the summer. The Grizzlies are in the fifth spot in the Western Conference, with hopes of being among the biggest contenders. They want to go deep into the playoffs<\/a>, and for that, they could need a veteran coach.<\/p>\n

The first name that comes to mind is Mike Brown, a two-time Coach of the Year winner. He is a strong candidate for any team. A defensive-minded coach, he can bolster Jaren Jackson Jr<\/a>\u2019s defensive abilities<\/a>. He has served as an assistant during the Golden State Warriors championships in 2017, 2018, and 2022. The only thing that can stop him is he signed a three-year extension with the Kings before being fired, so he might not be rushing to get back to the sidelines.<\/p>\n

Frank Vogel is another defensive coach who is available on the market. He won a championship with the Lakers but didn\u2019t have any success in Phoenix last year. His leadership amongst veterans has been questioned, namely in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

If the Grizzlies want an offensive coach, Mike D\u2019Antoni is a name that they can try. He is the oldest on this list, and his most memorable coaching stint was with the Houston Rockets. But he hasn\u2019t enjoyed any success since.<\/p>\n

An unconventional candidate might be Chris Quinn, a former assistant coach with the Miami Heat. During his time in Miami, the team has finished with an above .500 record in eight of ten seasons. A former point guard, he has the knowledge, experience, and relationships with players. He is also a former Spurs player, a huge selling point for coaches lately.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo credit: \u00a9 Alonzo Adams-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies shocked the entire league by firing their head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left in the season. Two years ago, the Grizzlies were the up-and-coming team. Last year, injuries and suspension to Ja Morant derailed their season. This year, they are back among the top teams in the crowded Western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5291,"featured_media":131295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,32,62],"tags":[132,1822,1948,3717,3840],"class_list":["post-131288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-grizzlies","category-nba","tag-frank-vogel","tag-ja-morant","tag-jaren-jackson-jr","tag-mike-brown","tag-taylor-jenkins"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131288"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131296,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131288\/revisions\/131296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}