stop blinking first
tuomas iisalo’s standards meet ja morant’s moods and the grizzlies cannot keep pretending both can win.
54 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions. that’s the current ja morant usage, the highest of his career, the kind of number that should make a downhill guard feel seen. instead, memphis got the quietest protest you’ll ever watch: a superstar parked in the corner like a forgotten coat, out of the huddles, out of the play, and very publicly out of patience. third suspension of his career, this one for a single game tagged “conduct detrimental to the team”, slotted beside the 33 games in 2023 for gun incidents and a highlight reel that’s starting to read like a legal file. stakes? a small-market franchise that just landed a big public investment in its arena and sells hope with a point guard’s grin can’t afford a season where the grin turns into a grimace. the pattern isn’t a blip anymore; it’s the brand.
friday night was the rupture. memphis led the lakers by 14 at halftime. then came the sulk. the postgame made it plainer. “go ask the coach”, morant said. “according to them, probably don’t play me honestly”. the weekend became reporting, then theater. locker-room confrontation. the head coach called him out in front of everyone for leadership and effort. morant shot back in a way the team deemed dismissive. one game. sit. instagram on sunday: “go grizz”. monday: back in the lineup vs detroit. maybe that’s closure. or maybe it’s just the quiet part of a cycle you’ve already seen too many times.
the ironies pile up like missed boxouts. if last year’s egalitarian, motion-heavy stuff rubbed morant raw, that’s not what’s happening now. the tracking data says the ball is in his hands again. the usage is there. and still he essentially opted out of the second half and took himself off the court. injuries everywhere? granted. names that sound like expansion-draft mad libs — kcp and wells starting, landale as a big, the hope that edey and ty jerome stabilize things and that coward graduates from the bench mob — also granted. but none of that explains a star who used to bend games with constant engagement suddenly choosing to stand still and glare at the floor while shooting 15 percent from three. context can bruise your numbers; it doesn’t excuse quitting on possessions.
enter thomas iisalo with a fire extinguisher and a lit match. the new coach does not do passive-aggressive. his origin story is public and unromantic: early head-coaching years full of ideas, then a decision to confront everything. he started naming the elephant in the room in front of the whole room. selfish play? out loud. low effort? out loud. first practice after a line was crossed? the biggest problem got sent out of the gym, not out of a drill. after that, by his count, his teams won about 80 percent of their games in germany. you can roll your eyes at european parables in an nba locker room. you can also admit every real team needs the same three steps he preaches: identify the problem, make sure everyone knows it’s the problem, fix it in practice. and here’s the uncomfortable bit for memphis: if the problem is the star’s mood swings, you don’t fix it by begging the mood to stabilize.
can an old-school accountability blitz plug into a league that trains coaches to be smooth diplomats for front-office projects? is a one-game suspension a message or a finger wag? and, more to the point, how many times do you let the face of your franchise dare you to blink? everyone loves “standards” until a max player breaks them. then it’s suddenly about “patience”, “process”, and “the long season”. the long season is the trap. it gives you just enough time to talk yourself into inertia.
the power dynamics are not subtle. morant means tickets, relevance, leverage with politicians, leverage with sponsors, the entire “why” behind the last arena dollar. he also means variance. over the past four seasons: 57 games, 61, 9, now a year already dinged. one playoff series win. two early game-winners this season, and then one very loud no-show in real time. a player who used to glide into two-on-ones and slow down for his shooters has, at times, become a player who isolates from the action and from his teammates. and a coach whose whole identity is “we don’t let that fester” just lit up the room six games in. if your response is “well, the city won’t trade its franchise face”, you’re admitting the basketball decision has already been hijacked by everything except basketball.
so let’s stop pretending this is only about november. memphis didn’t hire iisalo to win press conferences; they hired him to build something hard and repeatable. if the star becomes the exception to every rule, you don’t have a culture, you have an atm. if that’s the choice, pick the culture. shop him. not as punishment, not as shock therapy, but as strategy. if the phones around the league start buzzing, don’t just “not hang up”. be the one who dials. set your price, be cold-eyed about the guard class sprinting past him the last three years, and optimize around jjj’s prime and a coach whose identity has already raised your floor on defense and habits. small markets don’t get many franchise players; they also don’t get many chances to reset before the bill comes due. courage isn’t keeping the statue in place while the foundation cracks. courage is choosing the building over the statue.
some of this is performative because professional sports always is. callouts, suspensions, instagram olive branches, talk-show therapy where a local voice tries to golf through a pr crisis and the national host admits he’s tired of the noise. some of it is deadly serious. the grizzlies were built to be noisy in may, not november. when that noise becomes about everything except basketball, you’re burning equity you can’t replace. memphis doesn’t need morant to be perfect; it needs him to be coachable, available, and aligned with the work. if he won’t be, then the bravest and smartest move is to admit it and move on while the market still pays for the idea of ja. yesterday was just a monday in detroit and also a referendum on whether this franchise prefers grown-up basketball or familiar chaos. pick one. if you pick right, this weekend shrinks into a footnote by the time confetti hits the air. if you don’t, the confetti won’t show up at all.