Did Frank Vogel deserve to be fired by the Lakers?

The 2022 offseason has started for the Los Angeles Lakers with the firing of head coach Frank Vogel after three years of service to the team.

It was a move that had been rumored to be imminent since at least January, and now it has been made official.

This has been the most disappointing season in team history, with problems all over, including but not limited to key injuries, the team’s problems with star guard Russell Westbrook and poor roster construction.

At times, Vogel seemed to be caught in the eye of the hurricane, and he looked somewhat in over his head.

It seems like it is standard fare in the NBA for a team to fire its head coach when it has a hugely bad or disappointing season. It may not be fair or even the right thing to do, but it’s simply how teams operate.

Did Vogel actually deserve to get a pink slip, or was his firing simply part of a purge that was needed after such a disgusting year?

Vogel didn't have a great coaching year

Literally 12 months after he had coached the Lakers to the world championship in the Walt Disney World Resort bubble, Vogel and the rest of the team embarked on what they hoped would be another great season.

But there were problems from the start, the biggest of which were key injuries.

LeBron James suffered several injuries throughout the schedule, and Anthony Davis had two separate major injuries that each forced him to miss several weeks.

Guard Kendrick Nunn, who was expected to play a significant role, never suited up during the regular season because of a bone bruise.

On top of all that, several other members of the team were clearly at or past their expiration date and unable to give the team what it needed, especially on the defensive end.

Vogel has always been regarded as a defensive mastermind who loves to center his team’s culture and mindset on that end of the floor.

It was defense, plus a lethal fast break and transition offense, that carried L.A. to the 2020 NBA title.

But with all that happened in 2022, Vogel ended up using tons of different starting lineups, as well as some combinations that seemed to go against his own values on the defensive end.

At times, the Lakers could be seen sporting lineups with four guards, resulting in a 6-foot-4 player manning the power forward position, which is asking for trouble.

Dwight Howard, the team’s wide-bodied 6-foot-10 center, was effective defensively and on the boards, but Vogel played him inconsistently.

Perhaps one reason for the small, defensively-challenged lineups was Vogel’s attempts to appease a key member of the team.

Vogel couldn't figure out how to maximize Russell Westbrook

When the Lakers traded for 2017 regular season MVP Russell Westbrook last summer, it led many to expect a long playoff run from the team.

But a few felt that it was a bad move, although they couldn’t have possibly predicted how terribly the season actually played out.

As the season started to fall apart in December, Vogel responded by playing James at the 5, something which seemed to not be the brightest idea, given the mileage he possesses.

At times, the Lakers had some success with James in the middle, but it appeared that Vogel was prioritizing offense over defense by making such a move.

There was speculation that Vogel did so in order to place four shooters around Westbrook so he would have the room to penetrate and attack the basket in the team’s halfcourt sets.

Via Los Angeles Times:

Vogel didn't do a great job this year, but his firing may have been a rash decision

All in all, an objective observer simply cannot say that Vogel did a strong job coaching the Lakers this season.

However, it wasn’t all his fault, and some of the lackluster job he did was simply a symptom of the syndrome that affected the entire team.

Some may say that a Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr or Nick Nurse would’ve done a much better job, even given all the problems the Lakers had, and that one of them would’ve gotten the team to win the games against bad teams in which it blew big leads.

Perhaps one of them could’ve gotten a few more wins out of this squad, but in the end, it would’ve only translated to a spot in the play-in tournament, or at best, a low playoff seed.

Would the Lakers’ season have been that much better if they had made the playoffs, only to get run out of the gym by the Phoenix Suns or Memphis Grizzlies in the first round?

The only thing that would’ve been better, in the end, is that L.A. would’ve maintained some of its dignity.

The truth is, Vogel is still a good coach. Does he have flaws? Absolutely, but if he were retained, and if the Lakers would have a championship-caliber roster next season, he could very well get them another ring.

It’s understandable that general manager Rob Pelinka would want to dismiss Vogel in terms of optics and the symbolism of distancing the team from the train wreck that was the 2021-22 season.

But if optics and public perception didn’t matter, perhaps it would’ve been a good idea to at least have an open discussion on whether Vogel was still the right coach or at least a competent coach for this team.

What’s done is now done. Vogel is gone, and the Lakers now need to find the right leader to steer the ship away from the hurricane that caused it great damage over the last several months.

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