
Loading summary
Modelo Ad Voice
If you're listening to this, you deserve a Modelo. Because you're not just listening to a podcast. You're studying, sharpening your skills all season. You don't just watch college basketball, you live it. You have the dedication of a full time fan, so you deserve the beer of a full time fan. Modelo is a rich golden lager with a crisp, refreshing finish and it pairs perfectly with your passion for College Basketball. Visit modelousa.com to order your ice cold reward Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Import, Chicago, IL.
Metro Ad Voice
This season a new hot deal has arrived at Metro. $25 a line for four lines. With all the data you need and four free Samsung Galaxy A15.5G phones, getting Metro's best deals is easy. No ID required, no activation fees. Get a new number or keep your own. It's up to you. That's four lines for $25 a line plus four free phones. Visit a store or go online today only at Metro by T Mobile.
Amino Acid
When you join Metro plus tax for.
Izzy Gutierrez
A limited time and subject to change.
Amino Acid
Max one offer per account.
Izzy Gutierrez
Welcome to Oddball. I'm Amino Acid. That over there is Izzy Gutierrez. This is the show where we debate whether Cooper Flag is going to be a bigger deal than Bronnie James. Oh my God. All the clicks. All the clicks. Ah, but seriously, this show is brought to you by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours, Izzy. We had big stuff happen go down this week. Big stuff. Taylor Jenkins, head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies got let go Friday. It's only nine games left in the season. He's the all time winningest coach in Grizzlies history. They had a big showdown with the Lakers with whom they're fighting for the four seed against, and they. They kicked him out. They. They told them to hit the pavement. Izzy, how surprised were you by the timing? I think him getting fired, not as surprising as the timing.
Amino Acid
Definitely not. I think I was sort of still getting over the Lakers and Bulls just taking all the madness from March or themselves with the finish of that game. And then I'm sort of getting the Taylor Jenkins news and it's just. It's weird for a few reasons. One, you've seen over the course of these six years with this core of players, what they can be when they're healthy and they look good, right? Like they're not 100% healthy. Obviously. Ja has missed like 30 games. They have been significantly worse since the All Star break. And I think when you've had a coach for as long as he's been there. When you've seen the ups, you've seen the downs, you kind of notice when it's not going to cycle back to be a, you know, a winning team again, to be at their peak. And if you look at their top six guys, really their top seven guys these days, if you include Scottie Pippen Jr every single one of them have only known one coach, and that's Taylor Jenkins, except for Triple J, his first year, he had J.D. bickerstaff, everybody else, only Taylor Jenkins. So you kind of get the feeling of when, hey, this might turn around, maybe they'll turn it up right for the, right before the playoffs. And when you think about, you know, John Morant reportedly not being in love with the offense and seeing how they've fallen off the last couple of weeks or few weeks, especially defensively, which is the place where you look at mostly where guys are getting coached up. It's. When you look at it, it kind of doesn't seem so crazy like you're going to an assistant coach that might have a different version of the offense you're already running. And maybe it'll be the best. Maybe it'll be the honeymoon period during the playoffs and you get the best of this team because it didn't seem like they were going to go much further than they'd already gone with Taylor Jenkins.
Izzy Gutierrez
Yeah, like is the case with a lot of these firings. You just gave a very compelling argument is as to why he got let go. And I'm saying, cool, yeah, all that makes sense. My big takeaway is like, why now? Why so late in the season? It's funny, we got a, A, a statement from Zach Kleiman, who's the head of basketball decision making over there. And his statement was something along the lines of like, yeah, we're all about urgency around here. And I'm like, where was this urgency at the All Star break? Urgency is a core principle of ours. Where was urgency at the All Star break? Where was urgency? The first couple weeks after the All Star break, Where was urgency? Pretty much anytime to give your new head coach time to figure things out, because to do it now, to drop a bomb in the middle of a heated race as we're going to a Western Conference playoffs, It's, let's face it, it's not going to be easy regardless of what siege you're in. Like, I, I just don't understand why they didn't just let him play the se season out. If you had druthers that, oh, man, we could win a championship with the right coach. Then where were those druthers earlier? Here's another urgency sl. Timing question for you, Izzy. They fired their. Their assistant coaches last offseason. They brought in a whole new assistant coaching staff, which, by the way, they did not consult Taylor Jenkins on. You know what we call that? The old setting the table special. Okay, I'm gonna get you up out of here. First things first, let me get rid of all your confidants. Let me hire a bunch of dudes that you don't know.
Amino Acid
But that also helps out with the timeline, though. I mean, right. Sort of explaining it right. Because it's like, hey, here's your chance. We need to know what this is going to look like. And as they got further into the season, looked worse and worse. Like, I don't know from the outside looking, and I don't know necessarily who was a Taylor Jenkins guy and who wasn't, but just based on the quotes, seemed like Jaren Jackson Jr. Was definitely one, but John Morant certainly was not. Seemed like he got out of bed. He said he was in bed. Saw the quote, huh? Surprised me. That's pretty much what the extent of his quote. Not, hey, I really love that guy.
Izzy Gutierrez
So this is. This is the part where it gets really complicated, right? Because part of what they did to him, Taylor Jenkins, in giving him this new staff, they also told the new staff, hey, you guys are going to come up with the offense. Wait, what? Like, okay, so your head coach isn't even going to get to call what offense we're running. To me, this is NBA cowardice at its best. Just fire the guy. You. You don't like him, you don't like the offense he runs, you think you could do fire him? Why are you going to wait? Why you wait this long? It happens so many times where I see these teams hem and haw. It's like when. When another firing hall of Famer. When the Suns fired Earl Watson two weeks into the season, I said, you had all off season where you had the draft, you had free agency, you had the off season, you had before we went to camp, informals. We had all the camp. At no point were you like, I don't think this is the guy. Yeah, you figured that out two weeks in, same thing here. You had whatever inkling you had when you fired his assistants, then you let him go. This whole time, you're like, I don't know, maybe he could turn it around. But now you figured out he can't turn it around in time. In time for what? For y'all to have the same result anyway. If it's the same result anyway, let him have the dignity of finishing what he started. And like I said, I'll go back to if you think he's good enough to be your coach, let him pick his assistance. And if the result isn't right, then you fire him. Then you fire all of them.
Amino Acid
Let me say this though, whoever came up with the offense, I believe it was one of the coaches he was fired with just now. It came up. He came up with it as a, like a model after a Division 3 school. Listen man, if you're telling me if I'm an NBA front office decision maker and you are telling me you're going to devise an office, an offense based on something that you saw with Division 3 something or other, no thank you, man. I don't want any of that. Not only do I not think it's going to work, but you're going to tell your players that and they're going to be like, why? Why do we need some Division 3 gimmicky offense? And just to answer your last question, their terms of like, what is it like if they get the best out of their team with this new assistant code or with this new coach, what's that going to mean? Is that going to be title contention? Not necessarily. But if they make a Western Conference finals, if they, you know, go to a game seven in a second round as opposed to flaming out in the first round, which a lot of people assume they might have done under Taylor Jenkins, that's enough confirmation for them that they made the right move. I'm not saying that's what's going to happen, but it, this isn't one of those championship or bust type of scenarios. It's, let's just see in these playoffs because we know what it looked like under Taylor, let's see what it looks like with this guy.
Izzy Gutierrez
So, okay, so let's talk a little bit about this guy, right? This guy being the new head coach, Tas Isalo, he's finished. This was his first year in the NBA on an NBA bench in any capacity, right? This year here he's been a successful coach in Europe, albeit tempered success. And what I mean by that is he's never coached in like one of the elite leagues like Spain or Turkey, and he's never won one of those or in the Euroleague. He's been a Euro cup champion, which is the second division behind Euroleague as far as past the continent. He's been a Champions league champion, which is very different from Euroleague. But my point is the guy comes with very limited, with zero NBA history on this season and very limited high level international experience. And what I mean by that is when players see a co or with a coach for the first time and this guy hasn't been around the league, right? So guys will do a lot of yo, you know this guy? Oh, I see he coached in France. Did you? Were you playing in France with him? And so that's a lot. A lot of word of mouth goes there. Again, I'm not knocking the guy as a coach. I really don't know much other than looking at his resume. But what I'm telling you is historically, NBA players don't trust outsiders. They don't. If you are an outsider, you better have a, like a laundry list of connects and people who know you, who can vouch for you. Where they'd be like, oh, no, man, he was my assistant down in San Antonio. That dude's great. He knows his stuff. He's always whatever. Oh, man, that was my guy in Milwaukee, man. He used to work out. Anytime of night I would call him. He'd come out, work out. And this guy was always coming with film and stuff like that, like. Or yeah, I played against him in such and such or such and such. When you are someone who doesn't have any of those things and then you come in and you say, guys, I've got this new offense for you. It's based on a Division 3 school. Oh, by the way, all those pick and rolls you love to run. John Morant, we're not running them no more. Which is again an ongoing storyline. This is a quote from Isalo after he got the job. It was a big surprise in the last 24 hours has been quite a scramble here, trying to get myself and everybody organized. Izzy, if it's one thing I know about the NBA, they never fire a coach without having an idea who the next guy is going to be and the next guy it's going to be rarely. I won't say never. Rarely has zero clue what's about to happen. Ladies and gentlemen, might I introduce you to the Dagger? Well, I'm trying to run this off. I'm giving him the offense because he just don't like it or you don't know how to run it. The way I draw it up, I mean, if I drew it up, I mean I was calling the shots. I would have called this. The different lineups, I would have done like. And then it's like, hey, we fired head coach. We want you to be called. Me? I was just taking in hypotheticals. I didn't know anything. Oh, my gosh, I gotta get organized. Well, what is this? My handy dandy book of plays that I've. They're already all thought out of.
Amino Acid
Well, and the other thing is, is like, the. The idea. You're right. The idea of that offense was they weren't running as many pick and rolls. Even though, like, somebody like Zach Eady drafted number nine, he says out loud, hey, I love pick and roll offense. And they do less of it, right? And, you know, the idea is they draft him so they can punish small ball teams instead of just take them out and do the traditional thing. It doesn't seem like they were aligned on a lot of things. And so I wonder if it was something of, you know, they were just waiting for this opportunity. Right. Because they've been, you know, they've been up and down all season long. They've been dancing around the 2 seat for a while. Maybe it's now they're just like, all right, we've seen enough. It was never going to work. You're not doing what we asked you to do anyway. Let's. Let's use this assistant coach. He might put a couple new wrinkles in the offense, and so people won't complain as much. But, yeah, you weren't doing what we asked anyway.
Izzy Gutierrez
What about new wrinkles? It's his offense. He's the. He's the mastermind. Him and the other dude who got. By the way, there's an assistant who got fired. That's the funny thing. He's like, I just got here. How's this my fault again, Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not arguing for or against any of these individuals. I'm just saying when you are an NBA organization, there is a way, There is a protocol you follow when you make these kinds of changes in power. And when you don't follow them, you might think, like you're doing, people are a solid, but it's the opposite. You're putting them in quite the awkward predicament where they got to answer a bunch of questions that they may not necessarily have answers to. Quick question before we move on off of this, Izzy, what do you think this means for Ja long term? Remember, Howard Beck wrote this thing about ja might be the next superstar on the move, and the Grizzlies came out with a very flowery statement about, oh, my God, everyone hates us because we're Memphis. But that's not going to nothing's going to da, da, da. And here they are showing their ass in the most small market, country, bumpkin ass kind of way. So what does all this mean for Jazzy?
Amino Acid
I don't think this puts him in, like, the coach killer category because, again, you've had six years with Taylor. I think if anything was going to sort of force him out of Memphis, it was last year. And it was everything around that. And so I don't know if this in itself is that telling. I do. I will say that in the games that he missed, they were basically hovering above 500. And so I don't think that is very encouraging if you're the Grizzlies and say, hey, we can move on from job whenever we want. I still think they consider him and and Triple J as franchise cornerstones.
Izzy Gutierrez
All right, let's take a quick break. When we come back, are the bad boys coming back to play?
Rami Malek Ad Voice
This episode is brought to you by 20th Century Studios. The Amateur. When his wife is murdered, Charlie Heller, the CIA's most brilliant computer analyst, must trek across the globe and use his only weapon, his intelligence, to hunt down her killers and enact revenge. Starring Academy Award winner Rami Malek and Academy Award nominee Laurence Fishburne. The Amateur. Rated PG13. Only in theaters April 11th.
Izzy Gutierrez
Welcome back to Oddball. All right, night, we had a matchup between Minnesota and Detroit that ended in fisticuffs. That's right. We don't see that too often, guys. Old fashioned, manhandling each other, grabbing each other, shoving each other, getting each other's faces. It was Nas Reed fouled by Ron Holland. And then Dante DiVincenzo jumped in and. And it all became turned into a. A scuffle, a brouhaha, a skirmish. Or as Izzy heard from someone, a squirmish.
Amino Acid
Yeah, let's get this out of the way real quick because somebody on the reels today I saw called it a squirmish. And I said to myself, oh, wait a second. It's always called a skirmish, but is it spelled squirmish? S, Q, U, I. And so I did all the looking up and it was like, no, people. Just. Sometimes people do spell it squirmish, but pronounce it skirmish. And apparently that's allowed because it's like a nonce word or something. I don't know. But just, just know it's pronounced skirmish no matter how you spell it.
Izzy Gutierrez
And. And, Izzy, these are the same people who brought you loser. L O O S E R Looser.
Amino Acid
Yes, yes.
Izzy Gutierrez
Seven people got Ejected five players of two coaches. Let's get to the nitty gritty of all of this, the real stuff, which is, does this signify anything for the Pistons that they're not going to take from anybody?
Amino Acid
They already were, this team. And I'll tell you, it's just because of Isaiah Stewart, in my opinion. Beef stew, as they call him. Because if you remember back warriors recently, he actually got Steph Curry to do, like, a double take, like, and stare down. Right? Right. There's not that many people that can do that and say the right things to Steph Curry or even want to, you know, poke the bear, if you will. And this one, it wasn't even his fight, really. He just came in and if you show that. That image of him, like, he left the floor, like, pointing at his Detroit jersey, like, saying, this is us. Like, do not mess with us. And I do think that this whole idea that they are this, you know, young, lovable team, that's great. But this Isaiah Stewart tells me that they're tough and maybe the bad boys are back.
Izzy Gutierrez
No, no, I know you're meant for that one. Why? Yeah, why are you. Why are you stopping short of what you said earlier? Off camera, off air, Same thing.
Amino Acid
They could be a contender in the Eastern Conference. Like, they could be young. The combination of young and dumb enough and tough enough to surprise somebody. Think about it for a second. You're the Boston Celtics, right? Who did the Boston Celtics really beat in the Eastern Conference last year? I'll help you out.
Izzy Gutierrez
Nobody.
Amino Acid
Okay? Nobody. So if they run into a tough opponent in the second round that's pushing back on them and can score the way this Pistons teams can score, I don't know. I think they got a shot.
Rami Malek Ad Voice
No.
Izzy Gutierrez
Yeah. I can't believe you.
Amino Acid
Yeah.
Izzy Gutierrez
You think they're young and dumb enough to believe it? I can't believe you're dumb enough to believe this. There's a couple of things going on. So number one, we all. The generally accepted definition for contender is can you make it to the conference finals? Right. Can you be in the NBA's Final Four? In the east, you got to beat one of two teams to get to the conference finals, the Cavs or the Celtics. There's no way you can avoid it, barring everybody getting like, you know, malaria or something.
Amino Acid
And.
Izzy Gutierrez
And missing time. And as a result, you walk through kind of like the Celtics did last year. So I. This team is nowhere near able to compete with either of those teams. What's missing and what's missing? How about being to the playoffs before.
Amino Acid
Just experience.
Izzy Gutierrez
Okay. Yeah, like what? You got to Trust Tim Hardaway Jr. And Malik Beasley, Tobias Harris to be, like, the leaders of this thing. Come with me. Guys that have never been anywhere near meaningful basketball before. I'll show you the way. That's not.
Amino Acid
Reminds me of the team of the Dwyane Wade's rookie year where he was the star, even though they didn't really know it as much. A Cade is leading the way, and it's just a quality group around him that can, you know, play today's basketball.
Izzy Gutierrez
And that Heat team lose in the first round.
Amino Acid
Second round, second round to the Indiana Pacers in six games. And that was a Pacers team that was supposed to go far in those playoffs. I'm not saying that that team was a contender necessarily. I'm just saying it reminds me of that team. And if they would have beat the Pacers, wouldn't have been that crazy.
Izzy Gutierrez
Oh, if they would have beat the Pacers. Okay. Woulda, coulda, shoulda is what we're doing over here. Okay, so if I gave you which team in the east has the best chance of knocking off one of the top two, I mean, if they're completely.
Amino Acid
Healthy, I'm going to say the Knicks, because as you're. As you said, they've been there, we've seen it happen. But Pistons are right there, if not overtaking them. If you just look at the last.
Izzy Gutierrez
Half of the season, Knicks, Pacers, Bucks, I have them all better than the Pistons in terms of playoffs. But the Pistons are getting there. They're getting there.
Amino Acid
Okay.
Izzy Gutierrez
All right, let's do this. Let's play a little game called Centel or Central. Let's start with a sound bite, and I'll explain.
G.G. Jackson
I was brushing my teeth and all my friends called me, and they was like, yo, is this real? Is this real? It was like, Coach Jenkins got fired. And my first. I was like, they probably saw, like, NBA Sentel or something.
Izzy Gutierrez
All right, so that was G.G. jackson of the Memphis Grizzlies. Izzy, he's explaining to the people who don't know that there's a parody site. There's a. Hold on. There's an aggregator site called NBA Central. All they do is follow all the newsbreakers, and then they repurpose their stuff into their own tweets. Well, in the last year or so, there's this web. This thread called NBA Sentel. So it's a misspelling of Central, and they do parodies of these kind of missives. And for some Reason people fall for it every single time, even though.
Amino Acid
Because they do a great job with it. Because I've gotten that several times. Twice.
Izzy Gutierrez
Okay. All right, whatever. All right, so we played this before. So what we'll do is we show a real tweet that's been posted by either Sun Central or Sentel. Let's play. All right, first one up. What do we got? Says report Draymond Green called Isaiah Stewart and advisor to try and direct his energy toward the Wolves center next time. Izzy, is this central or Central?
Amino Acid
I mean, anything that involves Draymond Green is a possibility. It feels like central next time. Because I don't think he is purposely this time, because I don't think he is purposely going after Rudy Gobert by proxy at this point. So, yeah, I'm gonna go Sentel on this one.
Izzy Gutierrez
The moment I said he called Isaiah Stewart, I knew it was Sentel. Give me. Give it to me. What is it? Yeah, Come on, guys. Come on. People are falling for stuff. Like. That's the incredible part. All right, second one we got here. Doc Rivers says he doesn't get enough credit for winning three games in the playoff series where he blew three one leads. Saying quote, no one tells a real story. And I'm fine with that. It's unfair in some ways. I don't get enough credit for getting the three wins. I get credit for losing. I always say, what if we had lost to Houston in six? No one cares. One of the things I'm proud of is we've never been swept. All the coaches have been swept in the playoffs. My team's achieved a lot of them overachieve, and I'm very proud of that. Izzy, is this a real quote or is it Sentel?
Amino Acid
It feels like it should be fake, but I've heard Doc Rivers say this or seen him say this now not once but twice, which is. I mean, it's odd that he's gonna hang up a banner that says never been swept. I think that was. That's something that probably should look into when he retires. But, man, like the. I guess, just inability. The lack of awareness here, just to say this again, not just once, but twice, because he's been. He's talked about this before. It's a little embarrassing. And, yeah, I think if you go into Doc Rivers impression, it's probably the best way to answer this.
Izzy Gutierrez
Yeah, it's crazy because, yeah, I did say this years ago when I was in Philly when we blew a 31 lead there. I said, hey, in order to pull a 31 lead. You got to be good enough to get a 31 lead. And that. I agree with them. But, yes, this is a real quote. Said it multiple times. And here's another tell if you're wondering whether it's Sentel or Central. Sentel never has that much text. That's way too much.
Amino Acid
That's true.
Izzy Gutierrez
Wait, what's that? All right.
Amino Acid
Did I tell you?
Izzy Gutierrez
What?
Amino Acid
Which one? You know the first one I got got with, right? Which is the quote from Anthony Edwards. It said, feels like Julius Randers. Julius Randall's playing in jeans.
Izzy Gutierrez
Yeah.
Rami Malek Ad Voice
Yeah.
Amino Acid
That one seemed pretty real. I got got on that one.
Izzy Gutierrez
All right, let's get another one up here. It says Bronnie James on why LeBron James should win MVP. I grew up in an era where the MVP always goes to the best player in the NBA. Now this, ladies and gentlemen, this is a tough one because everything in me. Izzy says there's no chance Bronnie would even chime in on this. But if he were to chime in, I think that's what he would say. What do you think, Izzy?
Amino Acid
Well, I mean, if he were to chime in and he did say that, he would be probably lying, right? Because he grew up when his dad was winning MVPs. And there's a couple of them that people think. A couple more that people think should have gone to him and shouldn't have gone to somebody else, like Derrick Rose. And so, yeah, he didn't grow up in an E. The best player got the mvp. So I'm going to say this is Sentel. I think Bronnie would have been all over the place if he said this.
Izzy Gutierrez
Yeah, if it's not going crazy viral, you probably didn't have. When it's.
Amino Acid
I'm trying. This is me doing the Will Ferrell meme where he's super pumped but not doing it very well. I need to be on a robe.
Izzy Gutierrez
It's time to play Hot Streak. Hot Streak is presented by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours. This is the game where me and Izzy pick which game and the line off of the DraftKings sportsbook, and we try to figure out how many in a row we can get. Now, we had a nice little streak, and then it got broken off. But last week, we picked the Clippers plus three and a half versus the Knicks. Well, the Clippers won by 13 points. That was a great pick by us. That means we're back on 1 0. We got to start somewhere with the streak. So let's stay Hot. Here are some of the games we could choose from. We've got Rockets at Lakers. The Rockets are three games ahead of the Lakers in the standings. The Lakers are 5 and 5 in their last 10. Rockets are coming off of a shellacking of the Suns. Yeah, we've got Celtics minus five at Grizzlies. The Grizzlies are fresh off of firing their coach and they lost on Saturday against the Lakers. The Grizz also need every win they can to stay out of the play and didn't think that was an issue, but now it is and we've got Bulls at Thunder. Thunder, our 15 point favorites. Bulls have been red hot for the month of March, which is 9 and 5. Not really red hot, but red hot for them. Thunder have already clinched the number one seed out West. Izzy, I give you all those games. Which one intrigues you the most?
Amino Acid
I like two teams. I like the Bulls and I think I like the Rockets. But shocking the Bulls. I think just staying close within 15, even if they're getting blown out, might be able to score some points and just kind of keep it close, I think. Rockets, Lakers. I know the Rockets are on a back to back here and the Lakers are desperate, but the Rockets have just been cleaning up and the defense has been spectacular. I don't see the Lakers doing much with that defense.
Izzy Gutierrez
I'm looking at Thunder, Bulls. The Bulls have been a lot better. The Thunder have had some close ones. Now, I know Jalen Williams and Hogwart missed a couple of those games, but the combination of they have it locked in and the Bulls playing well and plus 15 is so big, I feel like you got to go Bulls here, right?
Amino Acid
All right, let's put our money on the Chicago bulls.
Izzy Gutierrez
All right. Plus 15. Yeah. Well, it's a new day ever since the banners got damaged. That's going to do it for us here at Oddball. Izzy, Michael Jordan called. He said I'm still the greatest player of all time. Lies.
Podcast Summary: Oddball - Ja Morant and the Grizzlies Lose Their Head (Coach)
The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
Released: March 31, 2025
In this episode of Oddball, hosted by Amino Acid and Izzy Gutierrez, the spotlight is squarely on the dramatic turn of events surrounding the Memphis Grizzlies. From the abrupt dismissal of their head coach, Taylor Jenkins, to the hiring of newcomer Tas Isalo, the hosts delve deep into the implications for the team, especially focusing on star player Ja Morant. Additionally, the show touches upon a heated game between Minnesota and Detroit, offers a playful segment on fake NBA quotes, and wraps up with their regular betting game, "Hot Streak."
[01:00] The episode kicks off with Amino Acid introducing the central topic: Taylor Jenkins' unexpected firing as the Memphis Grizzlies' head coach. Amino explains, "It's weird for a few reasons. One, you've seen over the course of these six years with this core of players, what they can be when they're healthy and they look good... It's like they're not 100% healthy."
Izzy Gutierrez immediately questions the timing of the firing, stating, "Why now? Why so late in the season?" She criticizes the organization for not displaying urgency earlier and questions the decision to let Jenkins finish the season, suggesting that it undermines the coach's dignity and the team's stability.
Notable Quote:
The hosts discuss how Jenkins' tenure saw ups and downs, particularly noting Ja Morant's significant missed games and the team's performance decline post-All-Star break. They argue that the Grizzlies' management likely realized Jenkins couldn't turn the team around in the remaining games, leading to his dismissal.
Following Jenkins' removal, the conversation shifts to the appointment of Tas Isalo as the new head coach. Izzy provides context: "This guy being the new head coach, Tas Isalo, he's finished. This was his first year in the NBA... he's been a successful coach in Europe."
Notable Quote:
Amino expresses skepticism about Isalo's lack of NBA experience, highlighting potential challenges in gaining the players' trust. He notes that historically, NBA players are hesitant to accept outsiders without substantial connections or achievements within the league.
Notable Quote:
Izzy questions the Grizzlies' decision to overhaul the coaching staff without consulting Jenkins, labeling it as "NBA cowardice." They debate whether Isalo's offensive strategies, reportedly inspired by lower-tier leagues, will resonate with the players and translate into on-court success.
The discussion naturally transitions to Ja Morant, the Grizzlies' star point guard. Izzy references an article by Howard Beck predicting Morant as a "superstar on the move" and questions what the coaching change means for Morant's long-term role with the team.
Notable Quote:
Amino counters by suggesting that Morant won't be negatively impacted directly by the coaching change, as the Grizzlies still view him and young core players like Jaren Jackson Jr. as franchise cornerstones.
Notable Quote:
The hosts contemplate whether the new coaching strategy could either enhance Morant's game or hinder it, depending on how well Isalo's system aligns with Morant's strengths.
Shifting gears, Amino and Izzy discuss a recent intense matchup between Minnesota and Detroit that escalated into a physical altercation involving seven players and two coaches.
Notable Quote:
Amino attributes the aggressive display to Isaiah Stewart, Detroit's powerhouse center, comparing his presence to that of former NBA toughs like Isaiah Stewart. They debate whether this signals a return to a more physically intimidating style of play for the Pistons, potentially positioning them as dark horses in the Eastern Conference.
Notable Quote:
However, Izzy remains skeptical about Detroit's contender status, emphasizing the lack of experience and leadership required to navigate the playoffs effectively.
Notable Quote:
In a lighter segment, Amino and Izzy engage in a game distinguishing between real NBA quotes and those fabricated by "NBA Sentel," a parody aggregator site often mistaken for official sources.
Notable Quote:
They present various quotes attributed to NBA figures, challenging each other to identify their authenticity. For instance, a quote allegedly from Anthony Edwards stating, "Feels like Julius Randers. Julius Randall's playing in jeans," trips Amino up, showcasing how convincing Sentel can be.
Notable Quote:
This playful interaction highlights the hosts' camaraderie and the audience's likelihood of encountering fake quotes in the digital age.
Concluding the episode, Amino and Izzy participate in their "Hot Streak" betting game, sponsored by DraftKings. They discuss pick options for upcoming games, analyzing team performances and making predictions based on recent form.
Notable Quote:
They debate choices like Rockets vs. Lakers, Celtics vs. Grizzlies, and Bulls vs. Thunder, ultimately deciding to back the Chicago Bulls despite being 15-point underdogs against the Thunder. Their banter is both insightful and humorous, reflecting their deep knowledge and passion for sports betting.
Notable Quote:
The segment not only entertains but also offers listeners strategic insights into making informed betting decisions, enhancing the show's interactive appeal.
This episode of Oddball masterfully balances serious analysis with lighthearted segments, providing listeners with a comprehensive look at the Memphis Grizzlies' tumultuous season finale, the potential reshaping under new leadership, and the broader implications for key players like Ja Morant. Additionally, the discussion on the Minnesota vs. Detroit feud and the playful Sentel game adds depth and variety, ensuring that both hardcore basketball fans and casual listeners find value in the conversation. The episode wraps up with an engaging "Hot Streak" segment, leaving audiences eagerly anticipating future discussions and predictions.
Key Takeaways:
Listeners tuning in to this episode are treated to a rich blend of informed analysis, engaging debates, and entertaining segments, making it a must-listen for anyone invested in the current NBA landscape.
Notable Quotes Recap:
Amino Acid [02:02]: "When you've had a coach for as long as he's been there... you kind of notice when it's not going to cycle back to be a winning team again."
Izzy Gutierrez [08:32]: "Ladies and gentlemen, might I introduce you to the Dagger? Well, I'm trying to run this off..."
Izzy Gutierrez [15:24]: "Seven people got Ejected five players of two coaches..."
Amino Acid [21:11]: "I don't get enough credit for getting the three wins."
Izzy Gutierrez [25:30]: "I can't believe you. There's a couple of things going on..."
For fans who missed the episode or wish to revisit the discussion, this summary encapsulates the key points, ensuring you're up-to-date with the latest twists and turns in the NBA landscape as dissected by Amino Acid and Izzy Gutierrez on Oddball.