Lakers: NBA Insider Believes Frank Vogel Will Finish Season in LA
It’s no secret that Lakers head coach Frank has been on the hot seat. In fact, there were even reports that Vogel would have been fired had the Lakers not beat the Jazz earlier this month.
Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports believes that Vogel will stay on the Lakers sideline for the duration of the season.
“I feel like the Lakers are moving forward and going to allow him to finish out the season as head coach. It was dicey there these last couple of weeks. Definitely the Lakers were considering making a move.”
After bad losses to Sacramento and Denver, The Athletic’s Bill Oram and Sam Amick reported that Vogel’s job was “jeopardy”.
Vogel and the Lakers are 6-6 in the month of January. After the Thursday loss to the Sixers, the Lakers have sunk to 24-25 (9th in the West).
The old sports adage is “control the controllables”. Vogel has zero control over injuries, which have played a significant role in Lakers disappointing season thus far. Superstar Anthony Davis missed 17 games with a knee injury. LeBron James missed seven games in November.
Their trio of Anthony Davis-LeBron James-Russell Westbrook have only played in 16 games together (308 minutes).
Ascending in the standings in the West is a challenge for any coach when your stars haven’t developed on-court chemistry.
Haynes also pointed to another variable that’s outside of Vogel’s control - roster construction.
“This roster as you know, was constructed by the front office, not Frank Vogel. Some people would say this roster was constructed in large part by the man himself, LeBron James.”
Whether it’s LeBron, general manager Rob Pelinka, director of basketball affairs Kurt Rambis, or a combination of the three calling the shots, Vogel shouldn’t be the scapegoat for the Lakers questionable roster construction.
