Less than a year and a half after Frank Vogel coached the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA championship, many fans have soured on him and want him gone.
Despite massive struggles this season, the team has kept him on the bench, and apparently, he will not be fired until the end of the season, if the team indeed decides to do so at all.
According to ESPN NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski, there are several reasons, and he detailed two during the Friday edition of “The NBA Today.”
“Two primary reasons (why Vogel hasn’t been fired), I’m told. One, they are accounting for the fact that Anthony Davis is out and has missed a lot of games this season. Kendrick Nunn hasn’t played yet this season, a guard they signed that they thought could impact this team.
“But ultimately, they don’t feel in L.A. right now that it would make a difference to let Frank Vogel go. This is a team that wants to still get in the play-in. To get Anthony Davis back. To find a way to get their group. And they still have a coach in Frank Vogel who has won a championship there, who has had success in the playoffs. And, listen, it is hard for any coach to survive the kind of games the Lakers have had this week, where you don’t see effort and you’re getting blown out. That can’t go on forever, but the Lakers still would like to get through the rest of this season with Frank Vogel.”
Woj says the Frank Vigel hasn't been fired cuz the Lakers feel it "wouldn't make a difference."
pic.twitter.com/NAwT2HJ8eA— 🏀 (@laughsandball) March 4, 2022
These seem like valid reasons. L.A.’s roster was considered one of the best prior to the start of the season, and no one will ever know how good the team would’ve been if it had remained relatively healthy from Day 1.
But Wojnarowski also mentioned another reason when he was on his podcast along with fellow ESPN insider Dave McMenamin.
Via “The Woj Pod:”
“They would like to get through this season with Frank Vogel. … It was day-by-day at one point, and I think we would both agree that if Jason Kidd was still on this staff, they would have made a coaching change. …”
Kidd was a major part of the Lakers’ coaching staff over the last couple of seasons. He left last summer to take the vacant head coaching gig for the Dallas Mavericks, and he has been doing a bang-up job.
Kidd recently defended Vogel, saying that the Lakers coach shouldn’t be judged until his team is healthy.
Of course, with Anthony Davis out for at least a few more weeks and Nunn’s timetable for returning unknown, the Lakers may not be healthy for more than a few games the rest of the regular season.
If or when Vogel gets fired, it may seem at least somewhat unfair because of the circumstances, but that is life in the NBA.
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