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Editor’s note: welcome to our series “Lakers 2020 Season Review”, where we will take a look at each member of this Lakers roster as the offseason begins and answer a few questions about what they contributed (or not) to the team’s 17th championship, as well as discussing where they stand going forward. . Today, let’s discuss Frank vogel.
Some situations feel like they were written for Hollywood. Fate lines up so perfectly that an outcome seems predestined.
And then there’s the way Frank Vogel ended up with the Lakers.
The Lakers initially approached Vogel to be an assistant coach, but his main options for head coach were turned down, so Vogel took over by default, and then his first day on the job featured a public relations assault. by Magic Johnson. . Vogel wasn’t exactly in a position to fail, but the conditions for success weren’t optimal either.
Despite all that, the NBA’s most glamorous franchise and a decidedly unremarkable coach somehow proved to be the perfect match.
There were three main reasons Vogel managed to help lead the Lakers to their first title in a decade, and his 17th overall: He prioritized giving the team a defensive identity, was extremely prepared for every situation the Lakers faced, and he adapted when he was there. it was necessary to correct the course. All three qualities were key to earning the respect of his team, and specifically his two superstars, as they created a monster that advanced into the playoffs.
Vogel came to the Lakers with a reputation for being a defensive-minded coach, but it was not immediately clear if he knew how to defend in the modern game, as the strategies he had employed in Indiana were now out of date. To his credit, Vogel knew he needed to make adjustments and began developing a new defensive philosophy a full year before he was hired by the Lakers so that he would be ready when the opportunity presented itself.
He spoke with Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski about his evolution as a defense coach:
“In the bye year, when the Magic fired me before I took the Lakers job, I really dived in and studied how I would have to modify the defensive side of the ball to build a kind of modern NBA defense. The rest of the league, most of the league had been dedicated to changing anything lawless at all times. And you know there’s obviously some benefit to that, but I felt like there was a balance, you know you could find a middle ground, and we were able to put together some definite rules of what a change was going to be, what a change wasn’t going to be.
“Obviously all the fundamental pieces of great defense were still in play first: rim protection, containment, defensive rebound and transition. All these kinds of things were drilled and trained on film very hard and at a high level. “
Most of that defensive training occurred even before the start of the season, as our Harrison Faigen then detailed. Having that base in place early allowed the Lakers to get to know their system at the start of the season and therefore develop some adjustments and counterattacks during the year to be more flexible and effective. Having a defensive philosophy that made sense to the squad and the team’s style of play also helped Vogel win the support of LeBron James on that end of the floor. It was the first example of how Vogel’s preparation yielded immediate results.
And despite knowing the way he wanted the Lakers to play, Vogel adapted when things were not going well. Anthony Davis had publicly made it clear that he didn’t want to play center, but Vogel started him in the fifth in the second half of the second game of the season, knowing the Lakers needed that versatility against Rudy Gobert.
In the playoffs, Vogel used different starting lineups in each series, alternating Markieff Morris, Dwight Howard and even Alex Caruso in the top five depending on the nature of the opponent. Not all coaches are willing or able to adapt on the fly; While other contenders stubbornly stuck to one style of play, the Lakers were the epitome of versatility.
Vogel’s adjustments were often the product of collaboration, as it continually sought advice from its assistants and from the players themselves. He did the work and research to create a plan for each scenario, but he also realized that the perspectives of others like Jason Kidd, Lionel Hollins, James, Davis, and Rajon Rondo could help in that preparation.
But while it was one thing to lean on his assistants, Jared Dudley said on the Lakers Nation podcast that it was Vogel’s willingness to solicit input from players that was his truly unique trait among NBA coaches:
“One thing I love about Frank is that when Frank comes up with a game plan, he tells you why, he gives you reasons why it’s going to work, and we stick with it. Now, in certain coverage with certain players, he relies on that … Now, it is not 100% of the time that we go with that. He says ‘you know what, let’s try my way first and if it doesn’t work, second or third possession, let’s go with you.’
“And he loves the input from the players. You don’t want movie sessions to be quiet. He wants people to participate because he wants us all on the same page, because he feels that if we are on the same page, we will give 100%. If we have doubts, then the guys won’t adapt very hard … It’s very weird, this coaching staff was weird. Frank Vogel had the perfect team temperature and it’s a big reason why we won. The adjustments he made, the starting lineup changes, Alex Caruso doesn’t start any (playoff) games except Game 6, putting Markieff in the second half, starting Dwight Howard, it was phenomenal and you could tell he had a lot of guts. . “
Guts weren’t exactly expected of Vogel when he was hired. On the day he was introduced to the media, he sat politely and mostly quietly as Rob Pelinka answered numerous questions unrelated to Vogel. However, Vogel’s modest presence contradicted the fact that he was more prepared for this job than any other candidate. He had the courage of his convictions because he was preparing behind the scenes.
In a sense, Vogel had an easy job this season. All he had to do was win games with LeBron James and Anthony Davis, a task others would kill for. But it also carried the weight of expectations. The Lakers’ talent was so prodigious that any failure would probably have been attributed to it. to the coach, not the stars.
Vogel didn’t flinch under that pressure. He became more confident as the season progressed, experimenting at all times, even aggressively during seed games when it seemed like the Lakers had lost all their charm, so he was fully prepared for every challenge the team faced in the playoffs. He knew this list inside and out, and he successfully pressed every button on the way to a title.
Vogel went from being the Lakers’ third-choice head coach to being the sixth in franchise history to lead the team to a championship. Despite his unfavorable beginnings, Vogel met his end in Hollywood anyway.
For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast at iTunes, Spotify, Stapler or Google Podcasts. You can follow this author on Twitter at @sabreenajm.
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