NBA

Grizzlies’ head coach Taylor Jenkins believes his team has lacked ‘maturity’ in the first round vs the Lakers

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Brooks and Morant pic

The Memphis Grizzlies are a fun regular-season team, but they are just not ready for the playoffs yet. Head coach Taylor Jenkins made some comments to the media prior to Game 4 last night. He said that his team lacked “maturity” and that they need to have an honest talk as a team moving forward. There have been some clear character issues for Memphis this season and Jenkins is going to address that this offseason. 

Memphis ended the regular season with a 51-31 record which earned them the #2 seed in the playoffs. Their first-round matchup is not your typical #7 seed. The Lakers made a number of trades at the deadline to improve their roster and the stars are healthy once again.

After a 117-111 win in OT last night, the Lakers have a commanding 3-1 lead in their opening-round series vs Memphis. NBA betting sites have the Grizzlies at (-180) to win Game 5 at home tomorrow night.

Can the Grizzlies find the maturity they need this off-season?

The two biggest culprits to Taylor Jenkins’ comments about his teams’ maturity are Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks. To begin, Morant had multiple off-the-court issues that he and the team had to deal with this season. Perhaps his biggest moment this didn’t even happen on the court.

Memphis’ all-star PG was suspended for nine games at the beginning of February by the NBA. Morant was seen on his Instagram live video holding a gun at a Denver nightclub. He bounced back from the incident and has since then been ok. However, there is still some time for the 23-year-old to mature.

Taylor Jenkins was likely calling out Dillon Brooks with his comments about the team’s maturity as well. Brooks has spent much too much time trying to get under the skin of LeBron James in this series as hasn’t been producing for the Grizzlies. He’s scored a combined 18 points and 7 rebounds in their last two games. That kind of production will not cut it if the Grizzlies don’t want their season to end on Wednesday.