Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace didn’t speak with the Kings about the front office job that ultimately went to Ken Catanella, a Grizzlies source told Geoff Calkins of The Commercial Appeal, who nonetheless heard from a Kings source that Wallace went so far as to engage in contract negotiations with Sacramento. Wallace denied that he spoke with the Kings, as Chris Vernon of WMFS-FM relays (Twitter links), with Wallace telling Vernon he has no reason to leave amid what he calls the best run of his career. “I never interviewed for a job with Kings,” Wallace said. “I’ve been in Memphis 9 years. I’m not interested [in] going anywhere.”
The notion that Wallace would leave the top front office job in Memphis for the No. 2 post under Vlade Divac in Sacramento would be troubling if accurate, Calkins posits. See more from Tennessee:
- Grizzlies management wanted to keep Joerger, but the coach forced the issue, Calkins writes in the same piece. Still, Joerger wasn’t Wallace’s guy, as Calkins points out.
- Key players on the Grizzlies as well as the team’s front office weren’t in Dave Joerger‘s corner, and Marc Gasol and Mike Conley never embraced Joerger’s style in his three seasons as head coach, according to Peter Edmiston of WHBQ-FM and The Commercial Appeal (Twitter links).
- The Grizzlies are in the middle of the pack, NBA’s no-man’s land, and the imperative this summer is that they acquire players who fit with a long-range plan, The Vertical’s Bobby Marks opines.
- To see the latest on the Grizzlies coaching search, click here.