The Memphis Grizzlies have hired Tuomas Iisalo as their head coach, the team announced Friday. Iisalo was named the team’s interim head coach at the end of March, when the Grizzlies made the surprising decision to fire Taylor Jenkins just weeks before the playoffs. Iisalo went 4-5 in his nine regular-season games as head coach, and Memphis earned the No. 8 seed in the playoff field via the Play-In Tournament. The Grizzlies were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.
Iisalo, 42, was hired as a Grizzlies assistant ahead of this season, and it was his first coaching gig in the NBA. The Finnish-born Iisalo previously coached in Europe and also had a lengthy basketball playing career in Finland.
The Grizzlies finished 48-34 in the regular season, but the sweep at the hands of the Thunder showed how far they are from serious contention, as our Sam Quinn wrote last week. Star guard Ja Morant was injured in Game 3 against OKC and said after the sweep that he had the Thunder “figured out.”
Iisalo is the latest interim coach who got a full-time gig. The Kings recently removed the interim tag from Doug Christie and the Spurs officially named Mitch Johnson as Gregg Popovich’s successor on Friday after Johnson served as San Antonio’s interim coach for most of the 2024-25 season.
