You can officially count another free agent in the coaching market.
The Memphis Grizzlies announced early Saturday morning that they dismissed Dave Joerger of his coaching duties. Marc J. Spears of ESPN stated that the team was tired of Joerger's lack of commitment to the franchise:
Grizzlies got tired of Dave Joerger not being committed to franchise & expressing interest in other coaching jobs, source to @TheUndefeated.
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) May 7, 2016
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports, Joerger was seeking permission from Memphis to talk with other teams about their head coaching vacancies. This was the second time in three years he had done this:
Sources: For second time in three years, Joerger was seeking Memphis permission to talk with other teams on vacancies. Grizzlies let him go.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojVerticalNBA) May 7, 2016
Joerger spent three years as Grizzlies head coach after being promoted from an assistant position on June 27th, 2013. While he led Memphis to the playoffs in all three years as head coach, he failed to get the team past the conference semis. By comparison, former Grizzlies head coach Lionel Hollins had taken the team to the conference finals during the 2012-13 campaign.
It is certainly remarkable what Joerger accomplished in 2015-16, considering the team used an NBA-record 28 players during the season. He managed to coach the team to the playoffs, where they were obviously outplayed by the San Antonio Spurs, but this was in the absence of both Marc Gasol and Mike Conley.
It was likely in the best interest of both parties to start fresh and the Grizzlies made the first move in doing so.
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