Comment|Tuomas Iisalo is quickly creating a handsome career in the NBA basketball league, writes Janne Oivio.
Lauri Markkanen limping along on a lousy Utah team and has been plagued by nagging injuries, but that’s okay. Finland’s NBA season has already been saved, thank you Tuomas Iisalon.
Iisalo was named assistant coach of the Memphis Grizzlies last summer. With no less than eight men in the assistant coaching staff, there are enough men in suits for two rows of benches on game day.
Iisalo sits in the front row, because he was chosen as a top assistant, his special area of expertise being the team’s offensive game.
Memphis’ last season went badly under the bench, largely due to injuries. The game had other problems as well. Iisalo, who earned merit in Europe, was expected to bring new ideas to the group, which was dominated by individual stars such as Ja Morant.
The Grizzlies lost 55 games last season. It is the worst reading for a very successful club in six years.
This season has been a complete turnaround. Of course, Iisalo is not alone responsible for that. The team has got its name players such as Morant, Jaren Jackson junior and Desmond Jobs back from being sick.
So far there are 17 wins and eight losses. The change is quite a bit.
Still, the Finn’s influence is undeniable, and it was summed up well by Bane after the November victory in Denver.
Grizzlies head coach Taylor Jenkins trusted Iisalo to develop the offense and it paid off.
“Our new way of attacking takes a lot of pressure off the players’ necks. We now have six to seven such players in every match who score well. It reduces stress on individuals,” Bane said, referring to the team’s revamped offense.
Memphis is no longer so dependent on the days of Morant, Bane or Jackson. The team attacks quickly, accurately and versatile. The statistics support it Bane’s speech.
Grizzielis offense is more efficient than ever before in its history.
Not funny.
What does all this mean for Iisalo? In short and to the point, he will soon become a head coach in the NBA.
Iisalo has built his career purposefully since he started at Tapiola Honga ten years ago. An upward career continued for a long time at Crailsheim Merlins in Germany. Iisalo has forged while the iron has been hot.
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Iisalo sits in the front row, because he was chosen as a top assistant, his special area of expertise being the team’s offensive game.
Merlins changed to 2021 Bonn, where it was a great success. After two seasons, the journey continued to Paris, where Iisalo stayed for only one year.
The coach who won the Basketball Champions League and the Eurocup in the last two seasons was in high demand in the NBA, and Iisalo seized the opportunity again.
And based on his career path, Iisalo is not afraid to send his CV when new opportunities open up in the NBA.
That’s just a good thing. Professional sports are a cruel world for a coach. Today’s hot name will be a toss-up tomorrow if things go badly.
There is a good feeling in the ranks of Memphis when the game is going. Ja Morant is dancing in the foreground.
European players have been hot stuff in the NBA for decades. Similarly, European coaching expertise has been utilized for almost a quarter of a century.
Still, very few have become head coaches in the NBA. The first European head coach born and educated in Europe was Igor Kokoshkov in the 2018–19 season. The Phoenix Suns gave him the shoe after one season.
Kokoshkov’s flop went to the Suns, and the rest of the league didn’t flinch. There are currently two Euro coaches in the league: Darko Rajakovic in Toronto and Jordi Fernandez in Brooklyn.
Both are doing a good job, and Fernandez in particular is garnering praise. Both coached for a long time as an assistant coach or in the farm league before their big opportunity.
In the spring of 2015, Tuomas Iisalo coached Tapiola’s Honka.
Rajakovic and Fernandez are separated from Iisalo by the fact that neither of them had Iisalo’s sea rites in North America when they started.
Rajakovic and Fernandez started building their careers in America, Iisalo in Europe. And Iisalo’s euromerits are in a class of their own.
And Iisalo has already had time to work as a head coach as well. That doesn’t hinder the future “candidacy” either.
in the NBA – as in every major league in North America – a new, hyped assistant coach is loved. Especially those who are considered innovators and reformers. That’s exactly what Tuomas Iisalo has been in Memphis.
Soon in NBA circles, the development of the Memphis offense is not only talked about as a general phenomenon, but Iisalo’s name is strongly associated with it.
The moment when a Finn is the head coach of an NBA club may not come next summer, but the direction seems inevitable.
Then Iisalon has to strike a hot iron again. He can do that.