The Memphis Grizzlies announced that they will be parting ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins

In perhaps one of the most bizarre moves in recent memory, the Memphis Grizzlies announced that they will be parting ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins after five years in the position.

As the news was broken by Chris Haynes, there is no word on why this decision was taken and who the Grizzlies will be announcing as his replacement in the coming days.

It was revealed by Shams Charania that the Grizzlies called Jenkins to the office and fired him in person. Grizzlies GM Zach Kleiman gave a statement thanking Jenkins for the role he has played on the team and how well he did in the head coaching position.

“I’m genuinely appreciative of Taylor’s contributions to this team and this city over the past six seasons. This was a difficult decision given the consistent and tangible development of our players and overall success under Taylor’s leadership. I wish Taylor the very best going forward.”

This is incredibly surprising, given that the Grizzlies are currently occupying the fifth seed with a 44-29 record and have a chance to move up in the standings within their remaining nine games.

On top of that, the Grizzlies were also playing consistently well this season. Usually, teams fire their head coaches when things are going wrong and they are losing a lot of games.

On top of that, firing a head coach just weeks before the playoffs begin is a bold decision if nothing else. Usually, teams try to make these types of decisions in the offseason so as not to upset the balance and chemistry of their roster and team.

Jenkins has helped the Grizzlies to a winning record for three of the five seasons that he has been in charge. In fact, he even led the Grizzlies to the second seed in the Western Conference during the 2021-22 NBA season.

With the roster that he had available to him, Jenkins did a great job in leading them to such a strong record this season.

During his time with the Grizzlies, they had a .539 winning percentage and a record of 250-214. He holds the record for the most wins as a head coach in Grizzlies history.

There’s no doubt that Jenkins will be a top coaching candidate come the offseason, as other teams will try and recruit him in hopes that he can replicate his form for them.

Given that Jenkins was doing so well in the position, this call makes very little sense. Perhaps we will find out more about the reasoning in the future, as there has to be a non-basketball-related reason for them to make this decision.

One can assume that the Grizzlies will name one of the assistant coaches as the interim coach ahead of the end of the season.