Taylor Jenkins-Larry Brown
A luggage tag produced the only firing in NBA history at all similar to Taylor Jenkins' stunning dismissal.
In April 1983, the New Jersey Nets – nearing the conclusion of their best NBA season to date – arrived to the airport for their flight to Detroit with a 47-29 record. Though rumors had swirled for weeks about coach Larry Brown leaving for Kansas University, the team mostly just played through them.
But Brown's bag had a "Kansas" tag still affixed to it, flaunting he was so serious about the college job, he had flown to Lawrence to interview.
Nets owner Joe Taub raced to the airport to confront the coach. Brown revealed he'd finish the season with New Jersey then leave for Kansas. Taub told Brown he was finished as Nets coach right then.
It took 32 years for another team to fire such a successful coach so late in the season, but the Grizzlies made that shakeup as the postseason nears.
For what it's worth, the 1983 Nets finished 2-4 under interim coach Bill Blair and got swept by the lower-seeded Knicks in a best-of-three first round series.
Taylor Jenkins games remaining
The Hawks fired Fuzzy Levane with six games left in 1962, Cotton Fitzsimmons with eight games left in 1976 and Hubie Brown with just three games left in 1981. But those were losing teams (strangely from the same franchise) going nowhere just getting a head start on the next season.
The Grizzlies will probably make the playoffs.
They're not a lock. After losing interim coach Tuomas Iisalo's debut last night, they're fifth in the West, 1.5 games up on play-in position. But ESPN's BPI still gives Memphis a 95% chance of making the playoffs.
Firing Taylor Jenkins with just nine games left, the Grizzlies could become only the second playoff team ever to fire its coach with single-digit games remaining. The other is, of course, the 1983 Nets with Larry Brown.
And the next-closest team, the 2020 Nets, thought they had more games remaining when they fired Kenny Atkinson.
Playoff teams with fewest games remaining when firing their coach:
Not much playoff success on that list.
Doxie Moore rallied the 1950 Anderson Packers past the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and Indianapolis Olympians all the way to the semifinals, where Anderson lost to the eventual-champion Minneapolis Lakers. Under Jeff Van Gundy, the 1996 Knicks swept the Cavaliers in the first round then fell to the Bulls in five in the second round.
Otherwise, none of these teams won a series.
Taylor Jenkins record
The timing of Taylor Jenkins' firing is most shocking. But it's not as if the Grizzlies were barely scraping along (not overall, at least, though more so lately).
Memphis won more than 60% of its games (44-29) under Jenkins this season!
That's the sixth-best record ever by a team firing its coach in-season.
Every winning team that fired its coach in-season (best I can differentiate between firings and resignations):
Nearly every team with a better record than Memphis had one of the game's very biggest superstars and all the resulting pressure:
- 2015-16 Cavaliers (David Blatt) – LeBron James
- 1979-80 Lakers (Jack McKinney) – Magic Johnson
- 2023-24 Bucks (Adrian Griffin) – Giannis Antetokounmpo
- 1981-82 Lakers (Paul Westhead) – Magic Johnson
The only exception: The 1982-83 Nets with Larry Brown.
Taylor Jenkins wins
Taylor Jenkins oversaw a successful team. He lasted most of the season.
Obviously, he accumulated among the most wins ever before getting fired in-season.
In fact, his 44 wins are 10 clear of anyone in NBA history… except, of course, Larry Brown who was 47-29 before getting fired by the 1983 Nets.
Most wins before getting fired in-season:
It's striking just how far Brown and Jenkins are ahead of everyone else. And in that sense, Jenkins got a raw deal. He didn't even get the Kansas job! He's just unemployed now.
Ja Morant
Ja Morant hated Memphis' offense, and that affected his day-to-day attitude, according to Sam Amick, Fred Katz and Joe Vardon of The Athletic. The Grizzlies were worried over recent weeks about buy-in, and the Desmond Bane-Santi Aldama shoving match on the sideline stemmed from Bane questioning Aldama's effort, per The Athletic.
Morant leaves plenty to be desire as a leader – his natural position as the team's biggest star, highest-paid player and point guard. Taylor Jenkins neither developed Morant into a better leader nor organized an effective untraditional leadership structure for the team.
Complicating the situation, the Grizzlies foisted upon Jenkins the assistants responsible for the offense Morant disliked. But as Nate likes to say, deserve ain't got nothing to do with it.
Jenkins failed to get everyone on board with a winning scheme. Maybe that was a nearly impossible task, but that was the job.
Pistons-Timberwolves
Seven – Pistons Isaiah Stewart, Ron Holland II, Marcus Sasser and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Timberwolves Naz Reid, Donte DiVincenzo and assistant coach Pablo Prigioni – were ejected after the teams brawled yesterday.
The chippy game included 12 technical fouls, the most in a game since 2005, according to OptaSTATS.
Down 10 when the fight happened in the second quarter, Minnesota won by 19.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori during the halftime interview:
"Pablo would do anything to get out of a halftime interview."
Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant is expected to miss at least three games with a sprained left ankle, according to Shams Charania of ESPN.
The 11th-place Suns are one game behind the Kings and two games behind the Mavericks for play-in position.
Durant has played just 62 games this season. To qualify for major postseason awards, players generally must play 65 games.
There is an exception for players who played at least 62 games and suffered a season season-ending injury. However, they must have played 85% of their team's games prior to getting hurt. Durant has played just 83% of Phoenix's games – two short of qualifying that way.
So, Durant must play three of the Suns' final four games to be eligible for All-NBA.
Tanking
Watch John and Nate discover a fun feature on John's video setup then solve tanking:
Zion Williamson, CJ McCollum
Speaking of tanking… Zion Williamson ("low back bone contusion") and CJ McCollum ("right foot bone contusion") will miss the rest of the season, the Pelicans announced.
A 2023 All-Star, Williamson is subject to the Player Participation Policy, which prohibits shutdowns of stars. So, either his injury is legit – or the NBA can fine New Orleans.
Nikola Jokic
Nikola Jokic continues to make claim as the most-skilled center of all-time.
With a 62-footer in the Nuggets' win over the Jazz on Friday, Jokic became just the second player in the tracking era (since 1996-97) to make multiple 60-footers in a season. He also made a 66-footer earlier this season.
Vince Carter made shots from 64 and 72 feet for the 2015-16 Grizzlies.
-Dan Feldman