Los Angeles Lakers bench boss Frank Vogel was named Western Conference Coach of the Month for games played in October and November, the NBA announced on Monday. Prior to dropping one to Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on December 1, Vogel had helped lead the Lakers to a 17-2 record to start the season. That mark tied L.A.’s best 19-game start and featured a 10-game winning streak to close out the month.
It doesn’t typically go this smoothly for head coaches who are working with LeBron for the first time to open a season. As a rookie under Paul Silas, James and the Cavaliers opened the year with five-game losing streak and added another eight-game losing streak before hitting the 20-game mark. When Mike Brown took over in Cleveland during the 2005-06 campaign, LeBron and the Cavs started 11-9.
In his first year with the Miami Heat under coach Erik Spoelstra, LeBron and the Heatles started just 12-8 despite featuring Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh alongside the King. Then, when James returned to Cleveland in 2014 and teamed up with coach David Blatt, the Cavaliers opened the season with a 5-7 record before eventually winning their next six games. Blatt would be fired shortly into the following year and replaced with Tyronn Lue during the season.
Not a bad first month on the job.
Congrats to Frank Vogel on being named Western Conference Coach of the Month! pic.twitter.com/dqAlkC2nTo
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 2, 2019
What’s maybe most encouraging for Lakers fans thus far is that Vogel has his team buying in on the defensive end of the floor. Los Angeles is currently top-five in defensive rating and blocks while LeBron continues to preach the importance of putting in work on that end of the floor. Meanwhile, Anthony Davis is a defensive player of the year candidate and the team is moving the ball well enough offensively to rank fourth in the NBA in assists.
Vogel, LeBron and the Lakers now travel to Denver tonight for a matchup with the 13-4 Nuggets. Led by Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, Denver currently occupies the second spot in the Western Conference, trailing L.A. by 2.5 games. If Vogel is going to go back-to-back with coach of the month honors and keep the good times rolling, that effort would start tonight with a big win on the road over a contending team like the Nuggets.