The Memphis Grizzlies made a surprising move to fire Taylor Jenkins, despite the team firmly being in a playoff spot, and the playoffs approaching in the near future, and Desmond Bane said that he feels some personal responsibility for the result.
“It's on us for sure,” Desmond Bane said, via Avery Braxton of ABC 24 Memphis. “You know, we're the five players out there. Coach didn't shoot one shot all season. He didn't guard anybody. He gives us a great gameplan and we didn't execute it to the level we needed to, so lot of times coaches and other people end up taking the fall, but ultimately, it's on the players.”
"It's on us for sure. We're the five players out there. Coach didn't shoot one shot all season. He didn't guard anybody… We didn't execute it to the level we needed to."
Desmond Bane on the Grizzlies firing Taylor Jenkins 🗣️
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Despite being 44-30 at the moment, good enough for fifth in the Western Conference, the Grizzlies felt that they needed a change. The team is very talented, having arguably the deepest rotation in the NBA. This is not the first surprise firing of a coach in the NBA this season, as the Sacramento Kings fired Mike Brown as the team struggled in the early going. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of Jenkins' dismissal, however, was that it came so close to playoff time.
The Grizzlies have just eight games left in the regular season, with huge matchups remaining against the Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets. All of those matchups have direct implications for the seeding in the Western Conference playoff picture. This is without mentioning the games against the Boston Celtics and Detroit Pistons, two Eastern Conference playoff teams.
It will be interesting to see how Bane and the Grizzlies perform down the stretch, and if there is any sort of bump in performance ahead of and going into the playoffs. The young group of players has shown much promise in recent years, but is looking to make a real deep run.
a]:text-link [&_>a]:underline">Ryan Bologna is an experienced sports writer covering the NFL, MLB, and NCAA Basketball for ClutchPoints. He studied journalism and communication at UConn, and has bylines at New York Sports Nation and the Greenwich Free Press.