Report: Taylor Jenkins’ firing was centered around ‘optimizing Ja Morant’

Report: Taylor Jenkins’ firing was centered around ‘optimizing Ja Morant’

The Memphis Grizzlies fired head coach Taylor Jenkins last week, roughly two weeks before the conclusion of the 2024-25 season. The Grizzlies, at the time, were tied for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference at 44-29.

While the Grizzlies improved to a fringe top-5 offense, they also fired assistants Noah LaRoche, who was largely responsible for the team’s new offense, and Patrick St. Andrews. According to ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, these decisions were made to help optimize star point guard Ja Morant, who wasn’t operating in enough ball screens in their new offensive system this year.

(Quotes via RealGM.)

“This was a decision that was about optimizing Ja Morant,” MacMahon said. “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? Could Ja look to to force a trade, or at least request a trade? And would Memphis shop him this summer?’ There’s been a lot of that. 

“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.'”

Through 45 games, the two-time All-Star is averaging 22.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game. He’s shooting a career-low 44.8 percent from the floor while knocking down just 28.9 percent of his 3-pointers.

While his usage climbed above 30.0 percent for the fourth-straight season, the former No. 2 overall pick is averaging the fewest touches (67.2) per game of his career with the lowest average seconds per touch (4.87) and average dribbles per touch (4.34).

Morant’s also operating in fewer pick-and-rolls (26.6 percent), where he’s scoring just 0.81 points per possession. In his four previous qualified seasons, he carried at least a 45 percent PNR ballhandler frequency with at least 0.9 points per possession, according to NBA.com’s Synergy tracking data.

Zach Kleiman admits Taylor Jenkins’ firing was his decision

We will see if this final set of games introduces different looks for Morant and his teammates. Jenkins was going to be the fall guy regardless because most teams will fire head coaches before the star players–whether that’s right or wrong is a different conversation, but it’s the reality nonetheless.

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