Frank Vogel coached his last game for the Los Angeles Lakers. Vogel was fired from the Lakers on Monday announced the team. The Lakers, winners of the 2020 NBA Championship under Vogel, went into the season as Western Conference favorites. Due to a combination of injuries, age, a poorly constructed roster and mismanagement of that roster, they failed to live up to that mantle and last Tuesday they were officially eliminated from playoff contention. They finished the season with a 33-49 record. Now Vogel is paying the price for their failure and was removed from his position as coach less than two years after leading the Lakers to the title.
“Today isn’t going to be a day of pointing the finger and exposing all the specific reasons,” Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said of the decision to withdraw from Vogel on Monday. It was time for a new voice. … That shouldn’t say anything against the unbelievable performances that Frank Vogel has achieved. He’s been a great coach here and he’ll be a great coach elsewhere.
“This has been a disappointing Lakers season on every level,” added Pelinka. “Given the disappointment, our fans expect more, and in every way. It starts in the front office I lead and our ability to create the right roster. It starts with the coaches holding the players accountable and making sure there is an execution on the pitch.”
In truth, the Lakers were barely attached to Vogel, even when they hired him. They originally planned to hire Ty Lue, but when they only offered him a three-year contract and demanded control of his coaching staff, he turned down the offer and the Lakers approached Vogel. He accepted the shorter contract and it paid off for everyone involved. But even after Vogel won a championship, he still had to wait until after the 2020/21 season to get a contract extension. That extension reportedly only added a single year to his contract and only signed him for four total, although Lue was given a five-year contract by the Clippers before ever coaching a game for them.
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Vogel’s strength as a coach has always been his defensive acumen. The Lakers won the 2020 championship on defense, and last season they finished first in the league despite injuries to LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Not even Vogel could save the Lakers’ roster this season as they fell to 21st on defense. Couple that decline with Vogel’s often-confusing rotation decisions, and the Lakers have decided to step away from their embattled coach.
Vogel is now set to become one of the most sought-after trainers on the market. In three NBA stops, he has won a championship, reached three conference finals, and won nearly 53 percent of his regular-season games. Should he not land another head coaching job this offseason, he could either take a year off (like he did after being fired from the Orlando Magic in 2018) or pursue an assistant coaching position. Vogel was an alleged candidate for Lue’s staff if Lue had been hired by the Lakers in 2019.
The Lakers will now be looking for their sixth full-time head coach since Phil Jackson retired in 2011. None of the others have been anywhere near as successful as Vogel. Traditionally, teams almost never fire coaches so soon after a championship. But the Lakers are not a traditional organization. They demand top performance year after year. They have made it clear that any coach who cannot live up to that standard will be out of a job. Now they have left the only coach besides Jackson who has guided them to a championship in the last three decades.