On January 9, Beijing time, the Grizzlies announced that the team's head coach Taylor Jenkins triggered a health and safety agreement. He became the 14th manager to trigger a health and safety agreement this season, and before him, Lyle, Gentry, Vogel, Monty Williams, Rivers, Malone, Billups, Mark Degnault, Donovan, Tyrone Lou, McMillan, Budenholzer, Kidd had all been recruited.
Against the Clippers, Jenkins was quarantined and unable to coach, and Grizzlies assistant coach Brad Jones became the team's interim manager. In addition to Jenkins, Grizzlies center Adams also triggered the deal and missed a fight against the Clippers. Prior to that, Adams was the only player on the Grizzlies to stay on full duty this season and one of the league's 17 full-time players. With Adams' absence, there are now only 16 people left in the NBA to stay on full duty. Morant also missed a game against the Clippers due to injury.
"Yes, we have to plan, when we find out that so-and-so has COVID-19 or so-and-so is injured, who is the next person to play, and so on... It's a challenging time," interim coach Jones quipped, "hopefully, except for a guy with a different appearance, an uglier and older guy on the sidelines, you won't notice how different the team is." Jones said Jenkins was involved in the tactical planning of the game.
According to ESPN, as of Saturday Beijing time, the league has accumulated 314 players to trigger health and safety protocols, and the latest report said that about 70% of players in the NBA have chosen to inject reinforcement needles.