Frank Vogel led the Los Angeles Lakers to a championship in his first season at the helm in 2019-20, but it was all downhill from then for him. The Lakers dealt with injuries in Vogel’s next two seasons, and that, combined with some poor decisions by the front office, meant that the seasons ended in disappointment.
Vogel was fired after they missed the playoffs in 2021-22, but the team’s fortunes haven’t changed a whole lot since he left. While they have clearly improved after a terrible start to the season under new head coach Darvin Ham, the Lakers still find themselves down at 13th in the Western Conference with a 13-19 record. In fact, at this very stage last season, they had a better record than they do now.
Lakers' record through 32 games:
Last season: 16-16
This season: 13-19 pic.twitter.com/0VPq9R06J0
— Lakers Daily (@LakersDailyCom) December 24, 2022
Lakers fans defended Vogel as they believe he was never the problem.
“Frank Vogel was never the problem”
“The coaches aren’t the main problem we all know who it really is lmao”
“Vogel was never the problem, idk why that was a narrative. I would rather have Frank than Ham.”
“I’m cool with darvin but sacking frank literally made no sense. We wanted to find a scape goat, we got rid of the wrong person.”
“Vogel was a WAY better coach than Ham”
“Guess the problem is the players not the coach huh???”
“They did Vogel dirty.”
“Vogel was a good coach”
“Pelinka sucks, Ham sucks, Jeanie suck, and Vogel was the scapegoat”
“Frank deserved better..”
“We are indeed worse than last year which is embarrassing and ridiculous”
“LeBron threw him under the bus”
“They said frank vogel is the problem lol”
“A better roster this season, and we are poorly coached this year. Last years team was too old to defend. This team has no plays to run, and plays bad defense.”
“That’s what happens when you blame coaches to cover for scrub players”
“Vogel is 10x the coach Ham is. One of the best defensive coaches of the league doesn’t become bad out of nowhere”
“I’ll still continue to say how wrong they did V, just managed some things wrong never the problem tho.”
“I’ve never put the entirety of the blame to Frank Vogel cause Rob and Jeanie were always the problem.”
“Tried to tell everyone. This man is so underrated as a coach it was criminal for the lakers to make him the scapegoat. Poverty franchise move.”
“It was never about Frank… biggest scapegoat ever”
To be fair, the Lakers did have an easier schedule to start last season, but then again, they were without LeBron James for 12 out of those 32 games as compared to him being out for 8 games this time around. They also have a much better roster than last season, so you would expect some improvements, but that hasn’t been the case.
Frank Vogel Was The Scapegoat
There were definitely some things that Vogel could have done better during his time with the Lakers, but he definitely wasn’t the biggest reason why they were such a disaster. The players and the front office, in particular, deserve a large portion of the blame.
The Lakers came under fire when Vogel was fired, too, with Charles Barkley saying they scapegoated him and Russell Westbrook, while Philadelphia 76ers head coach Doc Rivers called the whole situation unfair. While hiring Ham wasn’t necessarily a wrong move, firing Vogel definitely wasn’t the right call.
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