Around the NBA: Week 23 (3/24 - 2/30)

[TOO]

[TOO]

This seems insane, interested to see what comes from this.

[JeremyG]

Gonna be more to this story I'm sure.

Ima Udoka part 2? It’s gotta be something, right?

[wpmiller42]

For sure there has to be something more to the story. I mean, without any further information, I think I would take him over Budenholzer right now.

[Mori Chu]

The reddit threads on this coach firing don't really make it clear what is going on. I'm seeing some messages from Grizzlies fans that Coach Taylor sometimes used weird lineups and may have made some bad end-of-game decisions that cost them a couple of games. But in general they are having a strong season and it's VERY unusual to fire a coach just a few weeks before the playoffs. This smells like a scandal to me, like, he got caught banging the owner's wife or Dateline NBC found kiddie pr0n on his hard drive or something bad like that is about to come out. Hmm...

[The Bobster]

I love how the people who acted like LeBron's tip-in at the buzzer the other day was legenday were subjected to the Lakers losing on a 47-foot heave the next game.

I would be the first to admit LeBron has had an amazing career and that he's one of the best players ever, but the aggrandisement of everything he does is a bit much. It's has the feel of the parents of a newborn baby celebrating every BM.

[The Bobster]

The reddit threads on this coach firing don't really make it clear what is going on. I'm seeing some messages from Grizzlies fans that Coach Taylor sometimes used weird lineups and may have made some bad end-of-game decisions that cost them a couple of games. But in general they are having a strong season and it's VERY unusual to fire a coach just a few weeks before the playoffs. This smells like a scandal to me, like, he got caught banging the owner's wife or Dateline NBC found kiddie pr0n on his hard drive or something bad like that is about to come out. Hmm...

Isn't their real issue how much Morant has regressed? Is Taylor really responsible for that?


From the Memphis Commercial Appeal -

"A lack of success in the halfcourt offense over the previous five seasons led to the Grizzlies revamping their assistant coaching staff before the season. Memphis improved its offseason, but inconsistency combined with defensive struggles have led to the franchise being below expectations for this season."

[Wally_West]

A good explanation why he was fired. Grizz fans expected him to be fired but after the season.

[TOO]

Imagine making the Grizzlies sound like the Suns. Lol fans.

[Superbone]

Wally, do you have any other teenager opinions?

[TOO]

Wally, do you have any other teenager opinions?

Lol, I think she was a writer for SB Nation or something like that at some point.

[Superbone]

Wally, do you have any other teenager opinions?

Lol, I think she was a writer for SB Nation or something like that at some point.

Don't mind me. I was just being sexist and ageist. She seemed to know what she was talking about.

[The Bobster]

When your "top player" misses 30 games and has a subpar year in the ones he does play, it makes it hard to blace the cosch when they're still winning 60% of their games. Yes, they aren't a contender in the west, but does anyone really think they're that good?

[The Bobster]

Memphis has two players who are All-Star quality (Jackson and Morant) who miss a lot of games every year (sounds familiar), and one who is pretty good, but not great (Bane).

Sounds familiar, right? And they're still on track to win 50 games despite Morant missing 20 games, Jackson missing 8 and Bane missing 12. At best I would have pegged them as a 55-win team.

[Uncle_Gene]

Can't believe Memphis did that. They're currently 5th in the Western conference. Seems like a coaching staff disconnect. The front office did not allow the head coach to have the assistants he wanted to succeed.

This is definitely a head scratcher.

[Mori Chu]

OMG, Taylor Jenkins needed to be fired! It's all anyone in my homeroom is talking about!!

[Flagrant Fowl]

The only really surprising thing to me is the timing. They brought in a coach from Europe who changed a lot of their offensive identity to mixed success. He's also now the interim head coach.

However, the Grizzlies do a bunch of unusual stuff with managing player injuries/minutes and I don't know how much of that is coming from Jenkins.

[Superbone]

[ShelC]

I don't watch Memphis games so I don't know how the team looked. Fans and media expected Jenkins to be out this summer but still, to do it 10 games away from the playoffs is odd. Unless it was obvious the team wasn't playing for him and was completely checked out, this is something you do in the offseason because it's doubtful the new coach is going to spur some great postseason run.

[Mori Chu]

At first it smelled like a scandal, like an Ime Udoka situation. But the more I read about it, it sounds like three things:

1) There was a big personal beef between coach Taylor and the GM (who is only 37, btw, a bit young for such a big role). He wanted Taylor out and disliked him.

2) A sense within the org that the team was not a true title contender this season, therefore it would not really change anything to create a bit of chaos right before the playoffs.

3) A sense that the assistant coach, Tuomas Iisalo, would be a hot commodity this summer to be stolen away to be somebody else's HC. They wanted to lock him up before he went "on the market."