When the Memphis Grizzlies parted ways with head coach Taylor Jenkins just weeks before the start of the postseason, the vast majority of NBA fans were utterly shocked by the move. But on Tuesday, ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins outlined why he believes that the move was fairly easy to predict in his eyes.
We rarely ever see coaches in a position to lead their respective teams to the postseason get let go. But this was ultimately the case for Jenkins, who had the Grizzlies in a tie for the fourth seed in the West with a 44-29 record upon being relieved of his duties by Grizzlies’ general manager Zach Kleiman, who has taken “sole responsibility” for the decision.
While the timing of the move wasn’t what Perkins expected, he saw Jenkins as a coach who was working on borrowed time in Memphis, particularly due to the fact that Jenkins’ coaching staff beneath him wasn’t made up of names that he wanted in the building, but instead made up of people that Zach Kleiman wanted on the staff.
“The whole organization needs to be reevaluated,” said Perkins on NBA Today on Tuesday. “They built something from the ground up. Had a contractor in place that was doing a hell of a job. Laid the foundation, had the plumbing underneath, you know what I mean? And all they were doing was getting the framework and doing everything else. And then all of the sudden, they start messing up that culture they were building. It started off by letting go of Tyus Jones, you lose Dillon Brooks. And then all of the sudden, you fire Taylor Jenkins, who, by the way, probably didn’t have a chance.
“People will say it was maybe Ja Morant or the offense or whatever. Think about this for a second. Malika (Andrews), you host this show. You do a great job at it, one of the best in the game. Imagine coming in here and you have no say of who your producers are, who have your back. This is what Coach Taylor Jenkins is dealing with. ‘Oh, the front office, we’re going to hire your assistants.’ Every day he walked into coaches’ meetings, they had a wire on. He has no chance. So now, you have to restart. When you hear comments like Desmond Bane’s, Jaren Jackson Jr.’s, and Ja Morant’s, they sound confused when it comes down to the firing of Taylor Jenkins. I’m gonna say right now, this season needs to be a wash. They need to get back to the drawing board because it’s time to do a rebuild.”
.@KendrickPerkins didn’t hold back on his concerns with the Grizzlies 😳
“Step-by-step, they started messing up this culture that they were building.” pic.twitter.com/3ZL7wAKme4
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) April 1, 2025
Perkins’ argument here does have validity. What he is referring to is a report into the Jenkins firing from his colleagues, Ramona Shelburne, Tim MacMahon, and Michael C. Wright, who learned from sources that Zach Kleiman had a significant amount of say in the Grizzlies’ coaching staff outside of Jenkins coming into the season.
Kleiman reportedly “insisted” that Jenkins replace five of his longtime assistant coaches, including Brad Jones, Blake Ahearn, Scoonie Penn, Vitaly Potapenko, and Sonia Raman, coming into the 2024-25 season to make room for EuroLeague coach Tuomas Iisalo and former Spurs consultant Noah LaRoche.
Iisalo would ultimately be the man to take Jenkins’ job for the time being, as he was named the interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
Maybe Zach Kleiman had Iisalo in mind to replace Jenkins as the Grizzlies’ head coach from the very start. Or maybe Kleiman truly did just recently decide that the Grizzlies needed to go into the postseason with a new direction.
Either way, Kendrick Perkins clearly believes that the Grizzlies organization has some real problems as they approach the end of the regular season.