5 replacements for Dave Joerger with Memphis Grizzlies
By John Buhler
Former Memphis Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger was ousted from his post on Saturday. Here are five potential replacements for him with the Grizzlies.
On Saturday, the Memphis Grizzlies fired their head coach of the last three years in Dave Joerger. Joerger had been with the Grizzlies organization either as an assistant or head coach since the 2007-08 NBA season.
Joerger replaced former head coach Lionel Hollins during the 2013-14 and helped turn the Grit ‘n’ Grind Grizzlies into the most interesting throwback team in the NBA. While Memphis won 59.8% of its regular season games with Joerger as its head coach (147-99) and made the Western Conference Playoffs all three years , Memphis for one reason or another decided to part ways with its head coach that may have had his best season with the team all things considered.
No team in the NBA had a more chaotic roster due to injury than the 2015-16 Grizzlies. Center Marc Gasol missed half the year. Point guard Mike Conley had a season-ending injury. Backup point guard Mario Chalmers had himself a scary injury. No matter who went down, Joerger found a way to field a competitive team full of essentially D-League players, Zach Randolph, and Tony Allen.
Yet a 42-40 record, a No. 7 seed in the 2016 NBA Playoffs, and an unrelenting desire to compete wasn’t enough to keep Joerger in Memphis for the 2016-17 NBA season. Then again, a 9-13 playoff record isn’t exactly acceptable for a team that has been in win-now mode the last four seasons.
The Memphis job could be both intriguing or uninviting for potential head coaching candidates, depending on how the roster looks in a few months. Does Memphis try to win with what it already has or is it time to blow the whole thing up for an inevitable rebuild? Regardless, here are five candidates that the Grizzlies organization could look towards hiring as their next coach in place of the departed Joerger.
Next: 5. Mike D'Antoni