Lakers part ways with Vogel after failing to qualify for postseason

The Los Angeles Lakers have announced that they are parting ways with head coach Frank Vogel after a season in which they went 33-49 and failed to reach the playoffs.

This season was a disaster for the proud franchise from the beginning and they finished the season with just the league’s 22nd-best offensive rating and 21st-best defensive rating. The coaching staff struggled finding ways to properly integrate prized off-season acquisition Russell Westbrook, never managed to develop a consistent rotations, and were unable to cope with injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.

The Lakers are expected to conduct an extensive search for their next head coach with Toronto’s Nick Nurse and the University of Michigan’s Juwan Howard mentioned as possible targets. Nurse is represented by Klutch Sports, who also represent James and Davis, as well as Talen Horton-Tucker and Kendrick Nunn, however, he is still under contract in Toronto on a multi-year, expensive deal. Howard meanwhile, who won a pair of championships as a teammate of James’ in Miami before taking up an assistant coaching role there, joined Michigan in 2019 and it is unclear whether he would be willing to leave the school in search of a larger-scale role.

Lakers’ current assistants David Fizdale, John Lucas III, Phil Handy, Mike Penberthy, Miles Simon and Quinton Crawford are all expected to return next season and will conduct player development work over the off-season.

Along with finding the franchise’s next head coach, the Lakers’ front office’s big task over the off-season is working out what to do with point guard Russell Westbrook, who is expected to opt-in to a player option worth over $47 million. Charlotte and Indiana have been floated as potential destinations should Westbrook be traded, however, if a deal cannot be agreed upon, the Lakers may be forced to negotiate an enormous buyout or potentially stretch his contract over several seasons. Either way, the odds of Westbrook returning to Los Angeles appear slim; the 33-year-old was critical of different members of the organisation in his exit interview this morning, including Vogel, James, and Davis.

After head coaching stints in Indiana and Orlando, Vogel was hired by the Lakers to replace Luke Walton prior to the 2019-20 season after the franchise missed out on Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams. Vogel got results from the get-go, with the Lakers winning 24 of their first 27 games under him and motoring atop the Western Conference. The team was elite defensively and did enough offensively to match it with any opponent they faced. The Lakers would go on to win the franchise’s record-tying 17th title, with Vogel becoming the sixth championship-winning head coach in Lakers’ history.

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