The winding path to Taylor Jenkins' firing in Memphis can defy logic. Last offseason, Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman forced coach Taylor Jenkins to fire all his existing assistant coaches and remake his staff, and management then pushed to hire Noah LaRoche to institute a new motion offense (fewer ball screens). While the offense worked, the Grizzlies are sixth in the league in offensive rating, but Ja Morant and other players were not happy with it and reportedly were tuning out their coach. So Kleiman fired Jenkins and LaRoche, then gave the interim job to Tuomas Iisalo, who coached in Paris a year ago and ran an offense with a lot more ball screens (but maybe better spacing than we have seen in Memphis).
The coaching change's goal was to "optimize" Morant, something ESPN’s Tim MacMahon summarized well on the Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip Real GM).
"This decision to do it now and to move on from LaRoche, and to lean back into all the pick and roll stuff... this was a decision that was about optimizing Ja Morant...
"And look there has been noise about Ja being unhappy all season long. There has been noise about, 'Hey, you know, could Memphis look to move Ja this summer? Could Ja look to get out of Memphis this summer?'... I was texting with a GM after this happened and he said 'I would have told you I thought they were definitely going to [shop him]. Ja was out on them. They won games without him. They have to be sustainable.' And he said 'This is a move that goes in the face of that.'"
McMahon sums up the message of the trade as, "Hey, Ja, you're still our guy. Everything we do is going to be based on what's best for you. What optimizes you. They got away from that for a lot of this season and they're leaning back hard into it."
Morant didn't push for Jenkins's firing, and Jenkins would have happily leaned back into more Morant on offense (when he's healthy), but management wanted a new voice. Whether Iisalo is that voice and if he can make meaningful changes before the playoffs remains to be seen.
