After Jazz assistant coach Alex Jensen interviewed on Tuesday for the team’s vacant head coaching position, another name has now emerged as a candidate to be the Grizzlies’ next head coach, according to Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
The Grizzlies, who fired coach J.B. Bickerstaff following a record of 33-49 during the 2018/19 season, reportedly plan to soon meet with Lithuania’s Sarunas Jasikevicius, currently the head coach of Zalgiris Kaunas and one of the EuroLeague’s rising coaching stars, as the team continues to go through the early stages of its coaching search.
Jasikevicius, 43, is known for his strong-willed leadership style and coaching teams that exhibit elite ball movement and offensive execution, skills that have become synonymous with success at the NBA level.
As we detailed last summer, the Raptors interviewed Jasikevicius before hiring Nick Nurse and even offered him a job as an assistant coach on Nurse’s staff before he opted to remain in Lithuania. Since that time, his name continues to come up with front offices around the league as a possible NBA coaching candidate.
Jasikevicius, once a decorated EuroLeague player, also played two seasons in the NBA with the Pacers and Warriors from 2005 to 2007, where he held career averages of 6.8 PPG and 2.9 APG while shooting 35.5% from long range and over 90% from the foul line.
If they’re interested in Jasikevicius, they should also give Igor Kokoskov a look. He didn’t get a fair shot in Phoenix and I think he could do well in Memphis