The Memphis Grizzlies have finally filled their head coaching vacancy after they fired J.B. Bickerstaff one year after stripping him of the interim tag and making him the full-time head coach last summer.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Grizzlies will turn to Bucks assistant Taylor Jenkins to lead them through what appears to be a full-on rebuild in Memphis.
The Memphis Grizzlies are hiring Milwaukee Bucks assistant Taylor Jenkins as the franchise’s next head coach, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 11, 2019
Jenkins has been on Mike Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta and Milwaukee, rising to one of his top assistants after two of Budenholzer’s previous assistants were hired away to be head coaches themselves. He now joins Kenny Atkinson in Brooklyn and Quin Snyder in Utah as members of the Bud coaching tree, and the Grizzlies will hope he can find similar success in Memphis.
Jenkins will enter a Grizzlies organization that’s going through major changes this offseason, but with Jaren Jackson Jr. having a promising rookie year and Ja Morant expected to join the team with the second overall pick in the draft, there is an apparent foundation being built in Memphis. The new head coach will be tasked with getting the most out of those two and bringing along the rest of the roster around them, and one can expect him to incorporate Budenholzer’s chief philosophies of pace and space in Memphis.
