After that disappointing loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder that initially saw them having a 99-97 lead before resulting in a 125-104 defeat, former head coach Taylor Jenkins was fired with just a few games left to play before the season finished, now leaving the Memphis Grizzlies in the hands of assistant head coach Tuomas Iisalo with the playoffs closing in fast.

The last 24 hours after that dreadful game for the Grizzlies was quite a stressful one. Memphis was on a scramble to play its games, and they even had two fewer assistants who left with Jenkins as well. With nine games left to play in the campaign, it seems that the Grizzlies will have to make a promising stretch in their final set of games and hope for the best.

Mathematically, it is still possible for Memphis to clinch the second seed, provided that teams such as the Houston Rockets or the Denver Nuggets lose some key games down the stretch. For now, this is the time for Iisalo to make the most of his games and at least score some impressive wins that will give them some confidence in their chances of winning heading into the playoff chase.

Huge Firing on Jenkins

Jenkins has coached the Grizzlies since 2019, and was the fifth longest-tenured coach in the league right now, just following San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, Golden State’s Steve Kerr, and Denver’s Michael Malone – with all of the latter coaches having won NBA titles. However, this season has seen them come up with poor performances against key playoff teams in the league.

For starters, the Grizzlies finished 0-4 in all of their games against Oklahoma City, even losing those games by 24, 13, 17 and 21 points, respectively. They have gone 3-6 so far this season against the likes of Houston, Denver, and the Lakers, the next three teams ahead of them in the West. Memphis, however, has gone 33-9 against teams below .500 and 11-20 over winning clubs.

Jenkins, who had a winning career at 250-214, was the best coach that Memphis has had. He had the longest tenure for a Grizzlies’ coach since Lionel Hollins took over in the 2008-09 season before his contract was not renewed after reaching the Western Finals in 2013 with a 56-26 record.

However, there has been a lot of criticism about how Jenkins hasn’t been able to come up with impressive playoff campaigns. Moreover, his use of too many players even late in the season has been questioned a lot, and even his late-game timeouts and other decisions have come into play.

Iisalo’s Future with Memphis

Iisalo came into Memphis as an assistant coach this season as the first and only Finnish coach in the league. He has experience in playing and coaching in Europe, including in 2024 as he was the head coach of Paris Basketball, even winning the EuroCup and the league’s coach of the year at the same time. He also coached Telekom Baskets Bonn between 2021-23 and Crailshem Merlins between 2016 and 2021.

For now, Iisalo claims that he is fixated to focus on the Grizzlies’ current trajectory, and will just have to figure out what the coming weeks will be for the team before worrying about his future with the team after the season – of which the latter result will play a huge role in his chances of being the permanent coach for the team in the years to come.