{"id":131293,"date":"2025-03-28T16:33:02","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T20:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=131293"},"modified":"2025-04-01T03:50:02","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T07:50:02","slug":"tuomas-iisola-grizzlies-next-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/03\/28\/tuomas-iisola-grizzlies-next-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Grizzlies Name Next Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the Memphis Grizzlies pushing Taylor Jenkins out, Tuomas Iisalo <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1905684467328733204\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has been named as<\/a> the team\u2019s interim head coach, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania. Due to his lack of coaching experience at the NBA level, he\u2019s an unknown commodity to the average fan. However, he has an impressive body of work and sounds like is clearly respected by his peers.<\/p>\n<h2>Tuomas Iisalo The Grizzlies Next Head Coach<\/h2>\n<p>A few months before the Grizzlies hired Iisalo as an assistant coach, he joined a group of <a href=\"https:\/\/ukts.rs\/2024\/5\/17\/join-us-at-bcb-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Basketball Clinic Belgrade\u00a0lecturers<\/a> that included Charlotte Hornets front office advisor Steve Clifford (then the team&#8217;s head coach); London Lions head coach Petar Bo\u017ei\u0107 (former Austin Spurs head coach); and EuroLeague champion and Real Madrid head coach Chus Mateo.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sXc80twTzTE?si=x2zHM_aKRKrMaDot\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There he discussed pick-and-roll and transition defense in detail.<\/p>\n<p>Naming his three primary factors to a great pick-and-roll defense, Iisalo cites personnel decisions, base defense, and high-quality practices and training sessions.<\/p>\n<pre>Personnel: Athleticism, length, and processing ability\r\n\r\nBase defense: A go-to defense to \"hang (their) hat on\" and hold players accountable\r\n\r\nPractice and training: Pedagogy and progressively pruning away the team's weaknesses<\/pre>\n<p>He goes on to cite the importance of speed, effort, youth, organization, simplification, and optimization.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Coach of the year, Tuomas Iisalo explains his philosophy \ud83e\udde0 \ud83c\udfc0<\/p>\n<p>To go from a good team to a GREAT Team?<\/p>\n<p>Defense \ud83d\ude24 \ud83d\uded1 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RoadToGreatness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RoadToGreatness<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pyLIAFnteI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pyLIAFnteI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BKT EuroCup (@EuroCup) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EuroCup\/status\/1778428471514890583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>By the end, he had made it clear that how passionate he is about defense. Indeed, Iisalo believes &#8220;defense is the one thing that (he feels) separates really great teams from the good teams. He also revealed that he had learned from coaches like Clifford, Quin Snyder (Atlanta Hawks), and Ettore Messina (Olimpia Milano), directly or indirectly.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Coach of the year, Tuomas Iisalo explains his philosophy \ud83e\udde0 \ud83c\udfc0<\/p>\n<p>To go from a good team to a GREAT Team?<\/p>\n<p>Defense \ud83d\ude24 \ud83d\uded1 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/RoadToGreatness?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#RoadToGreatness<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pyLIAFnteI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pyLIAFnteI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BKT EuroCup (@EuroCup) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EuroCup\/status\/1778428471514890583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The week prior, Iisalo had won the 2024 EuroCup Coach of the Year award with Paris Basketball. This was in a season that he won 25 straight games. He had already won German League Coach of the Year (2022, 2023) and Basketball Champions League Coach of the Year (2023).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Two times German League Coach of the Year (2022, 2023), Basketball Champions League Coach of the Year in 2023 and EuroCup Coach of the Year in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Tuomas Iisalo is climbing the ladder step by step! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/jFqyVfwwfo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/jFqyVfwwfo<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Vasiliki Karamouza (@karamouza_vas) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/karamouza_vas\/status\/1776568840429674913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 6, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>Iisalo Style<\/h3>\n<p>All of that being said, Iisalo&#8217;s &#8220;essentially viewed as a pick-and-roll expert,&#8221; per Commercial Appeal reporter Damichael Cole.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Regarding Tuomas Iisalo, he was essentially viewed as a pick-and-roll expert when he joined the staff. The Grizzlies have notably trended away from a high pick-and-roll usage this season. Not a lot of time left, but expecting to see more of that.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Damichael Cole (@DamichaelC) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DamichaelC\/status\/1905687575039541605?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 28, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In a Frankfurter Allgemeine profile written by two-time Coach of the Year Stefan Koch, the &#8220;Iisalo style&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faz.net\/aktuell\/sport\/mehr-sport\/basketball-trainer-die-geschichte-der-brueder-iisalo-18440910.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is described as<\/a>: &#8220;&#8230;ultra-modern, based on pace, speed, plenty of three-point shooting, and strong offensive rebounding.<\/p>\n<h4>Changing The Offense?<\/h4>\n<p>Given that Iisalo mentioned beating opponents with team reactions rather than individual talent at the 2024 Basketball Clinic Belgrade, Memphis&#8217;s current offense may not get flipped on its head.<\/p>\n<p>The Grizzlies are multiple star-level or star-caliber pieces. Yet, their offense is a read-and-react system that emphasizes pace and space &#8211;their fastball and 3-ball. It isn&#8217;t really overly reliant on any particular player either.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers back it up.<\/p>\n<p>Memphis currently ranks first in pace (103.4), second in points per game (122.1) and sixth in offensive rating (118.0). They&#8217;re also in the top half of teams in terms of 3-point conversions (13.8 per game; 11th), 3-point attempts (37.6 per game; 14th) and 3-point percentage (36.8; 19th).<\/p>\n<p>That sounds a lot like the &#8220;Iisalo style.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>However, if the Grizzlies do begin to improve their pick-and-roll play though, it could benefit them. They currently rank in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/ball-handler?dir=D&amp;sort=POSS_PCT\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pick-and-roll ball hander frequency<\/a> (9.6 percent) and points per possession (0.80). Frankly, that&#8217;s strange for a team with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/p\/pippesc02.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scotty Pippen (Jr.)<\/a>. They also rank last in pick-and-roll roll man frequency (3.4 percent). This despite scoring <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nba.com\/stats\/teams\/roll-man?dir=D&amp;sort=PPP\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">1.15 points per possession<\/a>, tied for the seventh-highest mark in the NBA.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Chris Nicoll-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the Memphis Grizzlies pushing Taylor Jenkins out, Tuomas Iisalo has been named as the team\u2019s interim head coach, per ESPN senior insider Shams Charania. Due to his lack of coaching experience at the NBA level, he\u2019s an unknown commodity to the average fan. However, he has an impressive body of work and sounds like [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":131319,"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":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[32,1608,62,3],"tags":[3840,50053],"class_list":["post-131293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grizzlies","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-taylor-jenkins","tag-tuomas-iisalo"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131293","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\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131293"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132114,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131293\/revisions\/132114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}