Tuomas Iisalo is the new coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. The transport of the Finn is the end of a fairytale ascent that began in Germany.
The profit for discharge is a man who has left great traces in Germany as a head coach. Tuomas Iisalo, who once delighted in the BBL, takes over the grizzlies as an interim head coach, at least until the end of the season.
Tuomas Iisalo is the new coach of the Memphis Grizzlies
At the start of the season in Memphis, Iisalo had hired as an assistant coach and is now the first Finnish coach in NBA history. Even if his debut as a head coach was unsuccessful in the 127:134 defeat against the Los Angeles Lakers and the next two games were lost, Iisalo with his very special basketball idea could also shape the best league in the world.
From Crailsheim to the NBA
With a view to his vita, the fact that the 42-year-old is now head coach in the NBA is a little sensation.
In 2014, after his player career in Finland, Iisalo also started in his home country as a coach at the first division team Tapiolan Honka, before moving to the BBL descent candidate Crailsheim Merlins during the 2016 season.
Although he could not prevent the descent, the Crailsheimers continued to hold on to the Finn and probably made one of the best decisions in the history of the club. In the following year, the Merlins rose again and held the class despite mini budgets on the last match day.
This was followed by a development that no one would have believed to the underdog. Under Iisalo, the Merlins reached a playoffplatz twice in a row.
Iisalo inspires in Germany and Europe
After almost five successful years, the Finn moved on and switched to the Telekom Baskets Bonn within the league. At the latest there, Iisalo rose to the top European coach.
He formed a top club from the crisis traditional club, which had previously missed the playoffs twice in a row. In 2021/22 he finished second with Bonn and moved into the playoff semi-final.
In the following season he went one step further. With 31 wins from 33 league games, Bonn won the main round and only failed in the final due to the surprise champion from Ulm. Iisalo won a title in the season. By winning the Basketball Champions League, he secured the Baskets the first international title in club history. Bonn won 54 games in the Fabels season with just seven defeats.
With the Telekom Baskets Bonn Iisalo won the Champions League
After two years in Bonn and two titles as coaches of the year of the BBL, he moved to France and took over the emerging association Paris Basketball for the 2023/24 season. And Iisalo’s triumphal march continued in Paris. Together with numerous players he had brought from Bonn, he won the Eurocup with a record of 20 wins with just one defeat.
Murdered opponent at an incredible pace
In Paris, Iisalo managed to bring its exciting system to perfection almost for previous years. The Finn basketball is characterized by an incredible pace and an intensity grueling for the opponent.
During his time in Paris, his team set up a new Eurocup record with 98.4 points. The offensive rating of 127.1 was also spectacular.
And even in Memphis, after his arrival as a lead assistant coach, he changed a lot in the summer of 2024. It became clear early in the season that the style differs significantly from that of other NBA teams. The grizzlies play the fastest pace in the league (103.83). Last season they were in eleventh place in this statistics.
The aggressiveness with which the grizzlies attack the opposing defensive is supposed to be completely unnerves. After the defensive rebound it goes forward at speed, no other team is looking for the end faster. The team also uses every possible gap in the half field to attack the basket. A strategy as made for Grizzlies superstar yes Morant, who can regularly come to the basket at his pace.
“I’ve never seen anything like it”
“Defensives are good for five or six seconds,” said Grizzlies player Santi Aldama in the summer to the new ideas: “After that, players become tired. The more random the movement for the defensive, the better for us.”
This style of play already deteriorated the opponents in Europe. The opponents’ helplessness also arrived at the NBA this season.
Warriors star Draymond Green, who can actually decipher any offensive of the opponent as a defensive mastermind, was impressed: “When one goes to the basket, everything has moved. I have never seen anything like that. When one moves into the middle, the entire team rotates.”
The players of the grizzlies usually move completely in the collective. After the train to the basket, the players usually fit the ball outside, only to then go back into the zone. To generate enough space, the players constantly position and reposition themselves. Through the movements, they at the same time tie their respective opponent and make it difficult for the opponent to help in the direction of the ball leader.
Iisalo banned the players in Paris the use of cell phones
But Iisalo convinces not only with special tactical tricks. He also tries his team closer together with special internal rules.
“Cell phones are prohibited from the entire training center,” Iisalo explained during his time in Paris in conversation with Basketnews.com : “If you only have a look at your cell phone, we will lose focus.”
“When we are together, we want to get to know each other better in the team. To be successful, it is particularly important for me that the players really like and know each other,” said Iisalo.
Tuomas Iisalo with his key player TJ shorts
For this reason, cell phones were also prohibited in Paris. “If you really get to know your teammates, spend time with them or talk about eating, the team brings this closer together.”
At least in his time in Paris, this rule was well received, like Iisalo, based on an anecdote around his key player Tj Shorts (in Bonn and Paris MVP in the Champions League and in the Eurocup), made it clear: “In the beginning, TJ said to me that the cell phone rule was one of the stupidest rules that he had ever experienced. But during the season he came to me and said that one The most important rules at all.
The anecdote shows that Iisalo has success with its alternative methods. It is precisely these special features that make him one of the most exciting basketball personalities in the world-and now also a NBA trainer.