thelesterlee
Breaking: The Grizzlies have parted ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins, the team announced. pic.twitter.com/iPOs4lvNTa
— ESPN (@espn) March 28, 2025
The Memphis Grizzlies are 44-29—tied for 4th in the Western Conference.
With the playoffs about 3 weeks away, this team has a great chance of entering the tourney with homecourt advantage.
No better time to fire the head coach than this exact moment.
You’ll hear people say Memphis should’ve waited until their season concluded—or if they were this frustrated with Taylor Jenkins, they should’ve fired him a while ago.
He’s been the Grizzlies head coach since 2019.
They’ve had 6 years to figure out whether or not he was the guy to bring a championship to their city and the Memphis front office must’ve known he was incapable long before the 2025 playoffs were weeks away.
But hey, when it’s time, it’s time. Why wait?
Nothing sparks a team right to a championship parade quicker than firing the coach at the home stretch of the season. It’s like switching out Joe Biden for Kamala Harris right before the election. And we all respect our beloved President Kamala.
Let’s talk about how this affects the NBA world at large
3 Unintended Consequences of Firing Taylor Jenkins
1. The Grizzlies lose in the first round
This is the most obvious but, like, yea, they didn’t fire Taylor Jenkins with the intention of losing in the first round so it would literally be an unintended consequence.
I’m writing this right after seeing the Shams tweet of the firing so The Athletic hasn’t dropped the details from their front office sources waiting to inevitably dump a bunch of bullshit at Taylor Jenkins’s feet despite him building this program from the ground up and remaining a competitive team night after night with a roster of Jaren Jackson Jr and 11 role players—including this new, injury-ridden Ja Morant.
Congrats to the Lakers on their first-round bye.
2. More surprising coach firings
Taylor Jenkins led the Grizzlies to the playoffs 4 of his 6 seasons in Memphis—only missing the postseason in his first year when Ja Morant just arrived and last season when every player was injured and they were an expensive G-League team.
All of a sudden, there’s a great head coach available.
Teams like the Indiana Pacers or the New York Knicks or the Milwaukee Bucks—teams that could repeat their same playoff failures as last season—will be more willing to move on from their coaches now that a strong replacement is available.
Shout out to Tom Thibodeau turning the New York Knicks into a professional sports organization but maybe the Knicks might want a coach who doesn’t play their starters 50 minutes a game and refuses to make any adjustments.
I will never forgive Thibs for letting Trae Young sit in the corner without having to play defense or when they played the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler was limping up the court without anyone challenging him to play defense.
Thanks for the memories Thibs.
Don’t fuck this up, Rick Carlise.
Doc Rivers better be on the phone with ESPN to get his job back.
Taylor Jenkins is coming.
3. Where does Ja Morant play next season?
Earlier in the season, a strange report quietly leaked out saying Memphis was shopping Ja Morant.
The Grizzlies came out and denied the report—the report I’m fairly certain they leaked themselves—but this front office never believed in what they were doing this season.
Ja Morant won’t be on the Grizzlies next season.
Here are some quick teams off the top of my head that I could see pulling the trigger on Ja:
1. ) Orlando Magic: Ja can get to the basket and he’s a shit talker. He is exactly what the Magic need.
2.) Miami Heat: Imagine if Terry Rozier wasn’t betting against the Heat. Give all those minutes to Ja and maybe Miami looks like a basketball team.
3.) New Orleans Pelicans: Zion and Ja vs. Everyone.
*whispers* Memphis should probably fire GM Zach Kleiman too. You don’t get to pivot 10 games before the playoffs. That’s what chaotic franchises do. You don’t get to set the house on fire and claim the fire insurance.
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