A day after firing coach Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman answered the most pressing question about the decision — why now? — with brevity.
“I came to the conclusion that this is in the best interest of the team, and urgency is a core principle of ours, so [I] decided to go on with the move,” Kleiman told reporters after the Grizzlies’ shootaround on Saturday, via Action News 5’s Matt Infield.
After thanking Jenkins for his six-year tenure with the team, Kleiman took questions for less than three minutes. In the first minute, he said three times that he concluded the coaching change was in the team’s best interest.
Grizzlies couldn’t wait to fire Taylor Jenkins, and their bold, bizarre coaching change needs an explanation
Bill Reiter
The Grizzlies are 44-29 and have the league’s fourth-best point differential, but they’ve lost four of their last five games and 13 of their last 22. They have an 11-20 record against above-.500 teams, and, they’ve lost their last nine games against those teams. According to Cleaning The Glass, they are 6-15 against teams with a top-10 point differential.
Asked if the season can be salvaged with interim coach Tuomas Lisalo in Jenkins’ place, Kleiman said: “I’m focused on how we operate. I’m responsible for everything. I’m responsible for coaching, I’m responsible for the roster, I’m not trying to absolve myself of anything. I’m excited to see what this team can do the rest of the way, but this is the conclusion that I came to, that this is in the best interest of the team and we push forward with this group.”
Asked what led to the firing, Jenkins offered little clarity: “In this case, I’m going to leave it that I of course gave this real thought and came to the conclusion that this is in the best interests of our team going forward.”
Kleiman said that the players “were not consulted” before he came to his conclusion. “This decision is mine and mine only,” he said. A reporter asked if there was truth to The Athletic’s reporting about Ja Morant being unhappy with Memphis’ offense and if this was a factor in Jenkins’ firing. Kleiman responded, “No. This decision, again, is mine. It’s mine only.”
With only nine games left in the regular season, Kleiman acknowledged that Lisalo would not have time to make sweeping changes to the Grizzlies’ style of play.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s able to do with this group,” Kleiman said. “There’s realistic expectations. There’s not going to be time to install a bunch of things this time of year. My expectations are clarity of direction, and we’ll see what we can do, we’ll see what we can execute.”
It remains unclear what plans Memphis has for a coaching search. Kleiman declined to answer directly when asked if the rest of the season would be something of an audition for Lisalo and what traits he’d be looking for in the Grizzlies’ next coach, saying only that they are focused on their game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday.
Memphis indeed needs to focus on the Lakers game. The two teams are tied in the Western Conference standings, and LA has won two of their three meetings so far this season. As big as Saturday’s game may be, though, it has nothing to do with how the Grizzlies choose to explain the firing of the franchise’s all-time winningest coach.
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