J-Speaks: Unexpected Change For Memphis Grizzlies

Coming into this season, things were going to be different for the Memphis Grizzlies. Gone were three very important players in Tony Allen, Zach Randolph, and Vince Carter, who left in free agency for the New Orleans Pelicans, and Sacramento Kings respectably. The team led by All-Star center Marc Gasol, and lead guard Mike Conley got off to a solid start this season at 5-1. Since that time however, things have gone very south with just two wins in their last 13 games. After that eighth consecutive loss versus the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday night 98-88, the team felt something needed to change. 

That change was the firing of head coach David Fizdale on Monday, who led the Grizzlies (7-12) to the postseason in his first year as head coach. The team was the No. 7 Seed last season, and battled the Western Conference runner-up San Antonio Spurs tooth and nail before falling 4-2. He was 50-51 in his one-year plus with the Grizzlies. Associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff was announced as the team interim head coach for the rest of the season in a press conference on Tuesday. 

Things have gotten much tougher after that previously mentioned 5-1 beginning for the Grizzlies, who are currently mired in an eight-game losing streak. They are without Conley, who has been shelved the past seven games because of a left Achilles injury, and is not expected back any time soon. 

Besides being without their star guard, the team’s other star in Gasol, who also had a career-year last season under Fizdale, was not happy about being on the bench while his team made a dent in the Nets’ (7-13) 19-point lead in the fourth period with a 12-3 run to start the quarter. 

“I don’t like it one bit, and I’m more [angry] that I can ever show. But, for the benefit of the team, I have to show leadership, and continue to do my job,” Gasol said after the game. 

He also said, “I’m just as competitive as anybody. I hate not playing. That’s what I value the most. If I’m not on the floor, I’m not valued. I’m sure (the coaching staff) knew that would hurt me the most.”

Fizdale said after the game that he made his decision based on the reserves were playing well, and that they cut into the Nets’ lead. 

When asked about Gasol’s reaction about being on the pine down the stretch, Fizdale said, “Nothing against Gasol.” 

“We’ll address if it needs to be addressed, but it was a pretty simple decision what I did. It’s nothing against him. I’m trying to win a game. I’m desperate.” 

That is what can be said about what the front office of the Grizzlies made the decision they did in firing Fizdale, as the team is in its longest losing streak since a similar skid from Feb. 11-Mar. 3, 2009. 

General Manager Chris Wallace stated as much on Tuesday, when he said that the overall product, and not just the decision to sit Gasol is why the move was made. Wallace also came to the defense of the team’s starting center of him being labeled a “coach killer.” 

“There were bigger trends than just the relationship between the two of them,” Wallace said of Gasol and Fizdale. “It just hasn’t been going well for us after a good start. And there was no indication that it was going to change magically any time soon. Unfortunately, we are underperforming, [by] even the lowest of preseason expectations. We are an organization of high expectations for our team, so a change had to be made.” 

Not having you starting lead guard recently, and the fact that the guy you signed to a big- time deal in forward Chandler Parsons has spent most of his time on the sideline because of injury will put you behind the eight ball in the tough Western Conference. 

It also does not help matters that the rest of the roster of youngsters like Dillion Brooks, Deyonta Davis, JaMychal Green, Wayne Selden, James Ennis III, and Jarell Martin are trying to earn their stripes in the NBA, and that veterans like Tyreke Evans, Ben McLemore, Chandler Parsons, and Mario Chalmers have injury histories, or inconsistency in their play on the floor that made them unattractive for other teams to take a risk on signing. 

To bring this into clearer context, McLemore had just begun getting back into the playing rotation after being shelved the first 11 games as he rehabbed from injury. Green, the starting power forward a season ago, just returned after a sprained ankle in the team’s 103-91 season opener versus the New Orleans Pelicans (11-9).  

On top of that, the identity of this team has changed from years past. For years the Grizzlies’ mantra was “Grit and Grind,” which was led by Gasol, Conley, Allen, and Randolph. It was the description of their ability to score inside led by Gasol, and Randolph, and their ability to lock people down defensively led by Allen’s ability to take on the best perimeter wings in the game. 

To point how much has changed from the start of this season to recently, the Grizzlies were averaging 101.5 points the first 11 games of this season, while holding the opposition to just 98.0 points, on just 42.4 percent from the field, and 32.2 percent from three-point range. Over the last eight games, the Grizzlies are averaging just 95.1 points, while giving up 104.9 points to their opponents, on 45.8 percent shooting from the floor overall, and 39.9 percent from three-point range. 

Here is the other reality of where the Grizzlies find themselves, Gasol, and Conley under Fizdale had career seasons as mentioned earlier. Gasol had expanded his game to where he was shooting three-pointers, and making them. Conley became a guy who along with being a solid playmaker developed into a go-to-scorer, which he put on full display in the postseason against the Spurs last spring. 

Along with a great coach, Fizdale going back to his time as a longtime assistant with the Miami Heat, he fostered great relationships, especially with the likes of future Hall of Famers, and perennial All-Stars in four-time MVP of the Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James, and Dwyane Wade, who led the Heat to four straight trips to the NBA Finals from 2010-14, and two straight championships in 2012, and 2013. 

He even had that effect on star players who have seen him from a far like All-Star guard for the Portland Trail Blazers Damian Lillard. 

Which is why when the news came out of Fizdale’s ousting, they all took to twitter to express their feelings. James, @KingJames said, “I need some answers. Feels like my man was a fall guy. Carter, now with the Sacramento Kings, @mrvincecarter15 said, “Wow smh [shaking my head] just wow!!!” Lillard had the same reaction, @Dame_Lillard, saying simply, “Smh.”

Fizdale even has respect from other NBA head coaches likes Warriors head man Steve Kerr who said he was schocked when he heard the news.

"I think David Fizdale is one of the best coaches in the league. He's a brilliant guy. He's got an edge to him. He's tough. He's smart."

"Tough time raping my mind around it. Tough time even sleeping last night thinking about it," Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said of his former assistant before his team's Tuesday night tilt at the Cavaliers. "It just shows you how challenging this league is. He's a brilliant coach. He'll get another opportunity, but why does it even have to get to that?."

It is that kind of reaction that does not make the optics look good for Gasol, who said of the coaching change on Tuesday, “Nobody likes to see a coach change during the season because you don’t have enough time to work on stuff. I was a little bit shocked by it.” 

The person in charge of getting the team, who has gone 14-26 dating back to Mar. 1 of last season is Bickerstaff, who also has a close relationship with Fizdale, who he has known since he was 17 years old. 

Fizdale was in Bickerstaff’s wedding, and Bickerstaff came to Memphis last season to help the longtime Heat assistant succeed. 

If there is anything that can be made positive of this whole situation is that this will not be Bickerstaff’s first rodeo. He took over on an interim basis for the Houston Rockets back in the 2015-16 season when now NBATV analyst, and Hall of Famer Kevin McHale was fired 11 games in. The team went 37-34 to make the playoffs, where they lost to eventual Western Conference Champion Golden State Warriors 4-1. 

“Through the emotions, you have to come up with a plan, and hopefully that plan right the ship a little bit,” Bickerstaff said Tuesday. 

"In order for us to be the team that we want to be, especially with Mike out, a tone of that responsibility is going to fall on Marc's shoulders, We've seen how good Marc can be, and we need to do things to help Marc. Put him in positions to be successful. Support him. Those types of things, but we need him to be Marc Gasol."

He also said jokingly that he does not have magical pixy dust on hand to turn the Grizzlies around. 

On Monday, the Memphis Grizzlies gave the axe to a head coach who again got career seasons out of his two stars last season in Mike Conley, and Marc Gasol. Who coached them up to bring an out of this world effort against the mighty Spurs in the First Round this past postseason. Who represented the franchise with such grace, and class on major social issues the country has had to grapple with over the past few months. That is guy the Grizzlies gave the axe too, and while a new head coach is in place on an interim basis in Bickerstaff, the question is are they in a better place than where they were over the weekend? 

That is the question Bickerstaff, and the team are going to have to answer for the rest of this season, and that will not be easy, even if Conley does comeback.

An even bigger question for the organization past this season is can they build around Gasol, and Conley on max deals they signed over the past couple of summers, especially with the fact that the Grizzlies have not been a team that attracts big time free agents?  

The only major signing they have had in recent memory is Parsons, who so far in the second year of a four-year, $94 million deal has as mentioned been more known for being injured, and making up 23 percent of the Grizzlies salary cap space for this season.  

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 11/27/17 news from www.nba.com; 11/27/17 6:30 p.m., and 11/28/17 5:30 p.m. editions of NBATV’s “10 Before Tip,” with Jared Greenberg; www.nba.com/games/20171126/BKNMEM#/recap; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/mem/memphis-grizzlies; www.google.com; 11/27/17 www.espn.com story, “Grizzlies GM on firing: ‘No Indication That It Was Going to Change Magically;’” and 11/28/17 43 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump,” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Zach Lowe, and Paul Pierce.