Not only did the Los Angeles Lakers have to deal with assembling almost an entirely new roster for next season, but the coaching staff also shuffled around.
It all started when the Dallas Mavericks hired Jason Kidd to be the next head coach, which prompted Kidd to bring Greg St. Jean to his staff; Kidd recently brought over Jared Dudley, too, though Dudley wasn’t on the Lakers’ coaching staff.
Los Angeles hired David Fizdale, who had ties with LeBron James from back when both represented the Miami Heat, to replace Kidd’s spot.
Then, the Lakers couldn’t reach an agreement with assistant coach Lionel Hollins, who was reportedly frustrated with L.A.’s lack of communication, to extend his contract, so they promoted Mike Penberthy to an end-of-the-bench role.
While all this transpired, the Lakers still needed to sort out head coach Frank Vogel’s future with the team.
Vogel had one year remaining on the three-year deal he signed in 2019, and it began surprising people in the staff he didn’t already receive an extension based on winning a championship his first season and leading L.A. to the league’s best defense last year despite a plethora of injuries.
Though the Lakers eventually announced Vogel’s extension, the terms of the deal were not released.
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, NBA coaches around the league are pondering if Vogel received just one year in that extension:
The Lakers did finally grant Vogel his long overdue contract extension on Aug. 6 to ensure that he would not enter this season as a lame duck with an expiring deal, but the ongoing lack of clarity about the extension specifics has led to the presumption in coaching circles that only one season has been tacked on despite the championship Vogel won in his first season in L.A.
It’s unclear when the terms of the extension will be reported, if ever. If not, only time will tell if it was just one year by the start of the next offseason.
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