The Memphis Grizzlies have named Taylor Jenkins of Arlington, Texas as their new head coach according to Steve Megargee of the Associated Press on Thursday. Jenkins was the head coach of the Grizzlies for six seasons from 2019 to 2025 before his shocking firing by the Grizzlies on March 28, 2025.
The reason why no one expected Jenkins to be fired a year ago is because he helped the Grizzlies have regular season success. After 73 games in 2024-25, the Grizzlies had a solid regular season record of 44 wins and 29 losses for a winning percentage of .603.
Since the Jenkins firing, the Grizzlies have struggled. Jenkins’s replacement, Tuomas Iisalo of Helsinki, Finland, has a regular season record of 29 wins and 62 losses for a winning percentage of .319. When the Grizzlies did make the playoffs a year ago, Memphis failed to win a postseason game in the Western Conference quarterfinals, as they were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The fact that Jenkins took over from Doc Rivers in Milwaukee should be zero surprise. In fact when we discussed Rivers parting ways with the Bucks over two weeks ago, I believed Jenkins would be the new Bucks head coach.
My rationale was simple. Going by past history, the Bucks have a tendency of hiring a person as their head coach with prior NBA head coaching experience who had success. Jenkins follows a list that includes Mike Dunleavy Sr. of Brooklyn, New York, Chris Ford of Atlantic City, New Jersey, George Karl of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, Scott Skiles of La Porte, Indiana, Larry Drew of Kansas City, Kansas, Jason Kidd of San Francisco, California, Mike Budenholzer of Holbrook, Arizona, and Rivers of Chicago, Illinois.
The Bucks are trying to regroup after a disastrous 2025-26 season. They had a record of 32 wins and 50 losses.
