Did Dave Fizdale Deserve the Boot?

For some who don’t know, Dave Fizdale was fired as the Head Coach of the Memphis Grizzlies after a 7-12 start to the season.  He held a 50-51 record as the head coach after a 43-39 finish last season.  He has been in the NBA since 2003 as an assistant coach, most recently with the Miami Heat from 2008-2016.  Fizdale was in his 2nd season as a head coach and was fired.

Now that you know the numbers and the background did he deserve to be fired?  I think the fuck not.  First of all, Fizdale is a great coach. He has learned under tons of fucking great minds and I believe did the best job he could as a HC in Memphis.  Fiz was a coach who fought hard for his guys and would not let any bullshit affect him or his players.  For god sake the guy had a post game press conference where he straight defended his guys and called out the bullshit of NBA officiating.  To give you a quote Fizdale said after Game 2 against the Spurs in last years playoffs, “I’m not gonna let them treat us that way. I know Pop’s got pedigree and I’m a young rookie, but they’re not gonna rook us. That’s unacceptable. That’s unprofessional. My guys dug in that game and earned the right to be in that game. And they did not even give us a chance. Take that for data!”  

Take that for data is one of the best fucking endings to a rant alive and I loved every second of him ripping at the NBA.  The Spurs that game shot 31-32 from the free throw line and the Grizzlies just attempted 15.  He went out there for his guys so much the Grizzlies players, lead by Mike Conley, payed the $30K fine Fizdale was given for his comments.

Aside from all the comments and the hoo-ra,  Fizdale is not a bad coach by any stretch of the imagination.  He took a very thin roster and managed to make the playoffs in the Western Conference.  Again this year he has an extremely thin roster, even worse than last year with the departure of Zach Randolph, and is doing his best to get the team where it needs to be.  I will never understand the firing of a coach after a season and 19 games.  You bring the guy in and what the fuck do you expect him to do with a poorly built team in a year and a quarter?  Did the Grizzlies front office believe that in a year and a quarter Fizdale would win 60 games with that roster? I don’t understand.

This is just like when the Rockets fired Kevin McHale.  McHale had brought the Rockets up from his first season 34-32 and missing the playoffs to in his 4th year going 56-26 and losing in the conference finals.  After a 4-7 start the next season, Houston fires him.  FOR WHAT? I don’t know and the same mysterious reason happened to Fizdale and it’s even worse in his case.  The guy barely got 1 year to make something happen for a team that was built for success 3 years ago.  The current starting lineup for the Grizzlies after an injury to All-Star PG Mike Conley is: G Mario Chalmers, G Dillon Brooks, F Chandler Parsons, F JaMychal Green, and C Marc Gasol.  Now you tell me who can take that lineup and be over .500 20 games into the season.  

I hope that Fizdale gets a HC job somewhere else, because the Grizzlies clearly didn’t appreciate him.  They apparently will never find a coach because they don’t give him any fucking time to make any sort of progress or have any type of rebuild.  I can’t stand the utter stupidity put into some front offices in this league and it’s ridiculous that some front offices cannot even function.  Good luck to the Grizzlies they are going to need it.

Written by Nick Kazandjian