Joerger has a bear of a job before him
the staff. It is believed that Chicago Bulls assistant coach Ed Pinckney will join Joerger’s staff as a top aide.
Pinckney interviewed for the Grizzlies’ head job along with George Karl and Alvin Gentry. Pinckney’s move to Memphis would be considered a promotion from his place on Tom Thibodeau’s staff.
Let’s take a look at the first fan e-mail that came in after the Grizzlies finally decided to confirm that Dave Joerger will be their new head coach.
“Hope you stop calling the coaching charade by Grizzlies management a ‘process,’ ” the e-mail said. “There was no process. They had decided to sacrifice the progress of the team to dump (Lionel) Hollins early on because he ticked them off and go cheap, because they are cheap. Every decision they have made has been based on going cheap.”
So there you go, coach Joerger! Welcome to your new job! All you have to do to prove you deserve it is make people forget a coach who made the team better every single year and has now been martyred by Griz management!
Yes, knock yourself out, Dave! And if you have any spare moments, can you also clean the Augean
COLUMNIST
stables?
To be clear: I don’t believe the Grizzlies’ new ownership decided to fire Hollins the moment they took control of the team. They decided to fire him when it became evident they couldn’t forge a constructive working relationship.
I think firing Hollins was a mistake. I also think Hollins could have been more conciliatory. I think both sides will come to regret the way it unfolded.
But once the Grizzlies fired Hollins, Joerger was always going to get the job. I wrote it weeks ago.
Having waited an appropriate amount of time, and gone through the requisite number of interviews, Griz CEO Jason Levien finally decided it was time to bring his man out of hiding.
So now there will be an introductory news conference. Joerger — who is smart and engaging — will be terrific. He might turn out to be a very fine coach. But he has a massive, almost impossible job in front of him.
He is seen by some as the cheap option. He is seen by others as a puppet, the guy willing to do management’s bidding. Is that fair? Of course it’s not fair. It just happens to be reality.
Remember when Josh Pastner was hired to replace John Calipari as the head coach at Memphis? Everyone said Pastner’s job was impossible. But at least Pastner had the advantage that everybody hated Calipari at that point. Because Calipari bolted voluntarily. All Pastner had to do was not be Cal and he’d win over the populace.
Instead of calling the Tigers “my team,” Pastner called them “Memphis’ team.” Instead of being slick, Pastner aimed for earnest. No, he didn’t win as many games as his predecessor, but people loved him for being the anti- Calipari.
Joerger has no such advantage. People like Hollins today more than ever. And how can Joerger possibly do better than Hollins did as coach? Let’s see him increase his winning percentage every year. Let’s see him win 56 games and get to the Western Conference Finals.
Never mind that Hollins and the Grizzlies likely would not have gotten that far had Oklahoma City not lost Russell Westbrook to injury. That’s the new bar. It’s up to Joerger to clear it.
So have fun with the new gig, coach. Good luck making Griz management look smart this time. And once you get done with that, could you maybe fix our school situation?