Playoff-bound Grizzlies fire head coach with nine games left in regular season

Friday afternoon, the playoff bound Memphis Grizzlies made a move that stunned NBA fans and pundits across the league

They fired head coach Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left in the regular season

Jenkins, the franchise's all-time winning his coach, was in his sixth season

and he had guided the team to a 44 and 29 record so far this year, good for fifth place in the Western Conference at the moment

They were as high as second place two weeks ago, but hit a bit of a redact

rough patch losing four of the last five and 11 of their last 19 since the All-Star break

After last night's loss to top-seat Oklahoma City, Jenkins was upbeat and gave no indication

he knew his job was in jeopardy. Very encouraging. I mean, I love the fight going against the best

team in the NBA, you know, very encouraging signs about how we came in with the right fight, and then

also the tail-end of a road trip. You know, these are games that sometimes you can be looking forward to going home and we weren't satisfied. We wanted to progress so we get better, you know, from

the sack game, the Portland game. the Clippers game you know the second half of the Utah game was more reminiscent of who we are And we came in here you know after a two road trip and played great basketball until the fourth quarter With rumors swirling in NBA media circles that Jenkins had lost the locker room Grizzly general manager Zach Clyman did not detail

why Memphis made the change, especially at this point in the season, but said in a statement

this was a difficult decision given the consistent and tangible development of our players

and overall success under Taylor's leadership. I wish Taylor's the very best going forward

That overall success includes making the playoffs three previous times and having back-to-back

50 win seasons. But last year, after a slew of injuries to their best players, including superstar John Morant

the Grizz finished 27 and 55. Morant and Jenkins have also been seen arguing on the bench multiple times in the last couple season

The Grizzlies named assistant Tomas Isallo, their interim head coach, as they scrambled

to stay in their playoff position with nine games left. Next up, a home game Saturday night against LeBron James and the L.A. Lakers

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis