As the busted-up Memphis Grizzlies play out the final weeks of a lost season that could deliver a premium pick in the NBA Draft, Tuomas Iisalo is focused on incremental gains. That progress will be built on sound, fundamental basketball that every high school hooper should know. However, fans can feel the tension given the current marching orders. Lose enough to improve draft positioning. Win enough to build a foundation. Do both with integrity, even against the lowly Sacramento Kings.
Keeping things simple, relatively speaking, is apparently the recipe to run out the last two dozen or so games.
“I think the biggest thing is playing somewhat coherent basketball,” Iisalo stated. “We were able to plug in a few new guys right away into the playing rotation. That was not easy. We tried to keep the cognitive load to a minimum. Just do the basics. Those days we had to practice (after the All-Star Game break) were very important in that regard.”
Losing Ja Morant (injury) and Jaren Jackson Jr. (trade) marked a genuine inflection point for a small-market franchise looking to make a quick pivot back into contention. While most NBA staffs got to rest during the break, Iisalo's staff mapped out a reset.
“We worked to make sure everybody was going in the same direction and knew what was expected of them in different situations,” shared Iisalo. “For that, you need to stabilize some of the roles. So when we have new guys coming in, we've looked to keep their roles as similar as possible night in and night out so they can find some stability.”
Iisalo's stability-first approach is central to what Grizzlies (21-35) fans and league observers might call an ethical tank job. They are competitive but have fallen six games behind the LA Clippers for the final NBA Play-In Tournament spot. Still, as more players return from injury and the front office fills out the roster with 10-day contracts, Iisalo plans to increase the complexity for those who have shown they can handle it.
“The guys who are, let's say, more fluent in our language. We can move them around a little bit and see what we have not yet uncovered about the players,” Iisalo explained. “Because they are playing with different players in different roles, you can suddenly see that a guy is able to do something that wasn't maybe as obvious before then.”
Hidden gem discoveries are what separate a well-run rebuilding season from a wasted one. Sending the current group into the summer with habits and film that translate to next season, regardless of where the draft lands, is the top priority. Wins would be welcome, Iisalo has made clear, but not at the expense of the bigger picture. The Finnish coach will need to lean on the lessons learned over the next six weeks to survive another six-month slog in 2027.
So, for now, the measure of success over the final weeks will not be found in the standings but in whether the Grizzlies establish a foundation for the offseason. If Memphis can finish the year playing organized, disciplined basketball, the team hopes a difficult 2025-26 campaign will at least produce clarity heading into a new era.
