Explaining the Grizzlies’ odd timing behind firing Taylor Jenkins as NBA playoffs near

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Cinderella didn’t make it to the ball this year: We have all four No. 1 seeds in the men’s Final Four, and get Florida against Auburn and Houston against Duke. We’ll break it down later in the week, but for now, let’s celebrate this with a good old-fashioned LeBron James chalk toss!

Grizzly Situation

Why did Memphis fire its coach now?

Midday on Friday, the Grizzlies decided to fire their coach, Taylor Jenkins. The firing itself wasn’t shocking because there had long been signs they were headed for a split. It was the timing that shocked the basketball world, because it happened with nine games to go in a season where the Grizzlies are battling for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference. Like … they’re really battling for the No. 4 seed.

After losing to the Lakers on Saturday, the Grizzlies are 44-30 with eight games left to play and holding the fifth seed. They’re a game behind the Lakers (45-29) and one game ahead of Golden State (43-31). We’ve seen plenty of good and successful coaches get fired. We’ve seen Coach of the Year winners get fired in the same year as winning the award. But this timing? It’s a new one. Let’s figure out why:

Why were the Grizzlies and Jenkins expected to part ways? In the offseason, the Grizzlies fired Jenkins’ assistant staff and hired a new one, including now-interim coach Tuomas Iisalo, without really involving him. That’s never a good sign for long-term job security.

Was there anything else? They had Iisalo and recently fired assistant coach Noah LaRoche implement a new motion offense, which was not Jenkins’ idea or preference.

Did the offense work? Swimmingly! The Grizzlies were 11th in offense two seasons ago and are sixth in offense now.

So, what’s the issue? Well, Ja Morant doesn’t seem to like the offense, and the Grizzlies don’t really beat any good teams anyway. They mostly just beat up on bad teams, especially lately.

Is that why Jenkins got fired? That was probably the tipping point. The Grizzlies haven’t beaten a team above .500 since Milwaukee on Feb. 2. They’ve lost 10 straight games against good teams. They’re now 11-21 against non-losing teams and 33-9 against losing teams.

But why now? Jenkins doesn’t have the best playoff record, and the Grizzlies are probably desperate to salvage something here — especially if it feels like Jenkins lost the confidence of enough people. He won one playoff series in his tenure, and it was one of the worst-played all-around series ever, between Memphis and Minnesota in 2022.

Is this interim coach Iisalo guy going to be the answer moving forward? The writing on the wall suggests so, but nothing is official. Memphis paid a lot of money to bring him over from Paris to be an assistant. He’s a legendary offensive coach there, and this feels like a big audition.

The Last 24

The Lakers have a new big three

⚠️ Danger! The Lakers are showing what LeBron James, Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves can do. Can this trio win big in the playoffs?

🏀 Play-In push! The Bulls (33-41) and Mavs (37-38) are finishing strong even with losing records. What are they playing for?

📚 True student-athlete. Here is a fun story about Shakyla Hill, who became a star basketball player when she just wanted a law degree. She has multiple quadruple-doubles! 

🩼 More operations. LaMelo Ball is having multiple surgeries on his ankle and wrists. He’s done for the season.

📈 Measuring postseason hopes. Today’s NBA Daily uses its Playoff Pressure Meter to assess contenders. 

📺 Don’t miss this game tonight. Rockets (49-26) at Lakers (45-29), 10 p.m. ET on TNT. I would take seven games of this matchup.

📺 League Pass gem. Clippers (42-32) at Magic (36-39), 7 p.m. ET on League Pass (get it here!). If you love defense, this is the one for you.

NBA Stock Report

Thunder comfortably closing in on 70 wins

There’s no better time to highlight the team that has been making waves and dominating all season long. As for the bad trends: A coaching change isn’t the only reason a team is heading in the wrong direction, and another squad is trying to rebrand its long rebuild. (The “No Dunks” crew has you covered with more from the weekend!)

📈 The Thunder (62-12) have a real chance at winning 70 games. They’d have to win out, but they’re already on a nine-game win streak right now. And their season shows us they simply have a hard time losing games. The toughest hurdle to clear on a quest to become the third team in history to win 70 games would be Friday at Houston, followed by two home games against the Lakers. We might see OKC ride a 17-game win streak and history into the playoffs.

📈 The Magic (36-39) aren’t totally back, but they look really good again. They’ve won seven of their last 11 games. Paolo Banchero is averaging 30.6 points on 50.2/37.0/75.3 shooting splits with 7.9 rebounds and 4.2 assists in this stretch. Franz Wagner is playing well too, even though he can’t make a 3-pointer again. I don’t think they’ll have enough offense to pull off a first-round upset, but Cleveland definitely doesn’t want to deal with their physicality to begin their playoff journey.

📉 Bucks (40-34): Milwaukee won’t fall into the Play-In Tournament, but the recent news with Damian Lillard having blood clots spells big-time trouble. There appears to be optimism he could be back for the playoffs. But if he is, what kind of shape will he be in? What kind of continuity will the Bucks have? They’ve lost nine of their last 13, and I’m not sure there is enough time for Milwaukee to rally and get to a level of play it might need to reach for postseason success.

📈 The Bulls (33-41) were supposed to be focusing on the young players, easing into some losses and maybe watching the lottery odds pile up for themselves after trading Zach LaVine at the deadline. It turns out the kids can play. The Bulls have been on fire. Chicago has won nine of its last 12. When Coby White gets going, this entire team seems to be galvanized with irrational confidence. This team might not be an easy out in the first round if it makes it through the Play-In Tournament.

📉 Jazz (16-59): This should really be about Jazz fans because what they’ve had to watch for most of this season has been truly terrible. The product has been so bad that the Jazz are now trying to rebrand this as the first true season of the rebuild, because the previous two seasons were “teardown” seasons. I’m sorry, but the summer you traded Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert for a truckload of picks, you started rebuilding. It’s an interesting marketing ploy, but it doesn’t work that way.

How Was Your Weekend?

Wolves, Pistons scrapped it out Sunday

Sunday wasn’t too eventful in the NBA — unless you were sitting baseline at the Target Center to watch the Wolves beat the Pistons, 123-104. Early in the second quarter, some chippiness finally boiled over between Naz Reid and Ron Holland II. That was the moment the phrase “When push comes to shove” took human form between these two teams.

Reid wagged his finger at Holland after a foul that wasn’t too bad. Donte DiVincenzo decided to get into the mix and immediately started pushing Holland to hold him off as he was stepping up to Reid. Everybody started shoving, and it immediately spilled into the cameraman and the first couple rows on the baseline.

There ended up being seven different ejections from this moment. And if you were wondering whether or not Isaiah Stewart got involved and ejected … yes, he was in the building, so of course he did. He also walked back, popped his jersey and yelled, “Detroit!” at the Wolves crowd. Stewart, Holland, DiVincenzo, Reid, Marcus Sasser, Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Wolves assistant coach Pablo Prigioni were all ejected.

Here’s another incredible angle from someone sitting a couple rows right behind the kerfuffle. I would imagine DiVincenzo, Holland and Stewart will get the biggest punishments for this. No punches were thrown, although Stewart seemed to take a shot at Reid when he was on the ground. But this went into the stands, and the league office will be very mad at that.

Also, the Wolves trolled former teammate Malik Beasley, who talked a lot of trash when the Pistons were winning that game.

West Playoff standings changes from the weekend (no changes in the East): 

6️⃣ in the West 

• The Warriors (43-31) moved ⬆️ to sixth with wins over New Orleans (21-54) and San Antonio (31-43). Steph Curry was back for both.
• The Wolves (43-32) are a half-game back in seventh after wins over Phoenix (35-40) and Detroit (42-33).
• The Clippers (42-32) are eighth, a half-game behind Minnesota. They beat Brooklyn (24-51) but lost to Cleveland (60-15).

West Play-In Battle

• Dallas beat Chicago (33-41) to move into ninth. The Mavs are now 4-0 with Anthony Davis playing. 👀
• Sacramento (36-38) is down to 10th, just a half-game behind Dallas. They lost by 30 to Orlando.
• Phoenix lost to Minnesota by 15 and then to Houston by 39 to fall to 11th in the West. Even worse? Kevin Durant turned his ankle.

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(Top photo: Petre Thomas / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

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