As usual, there was no lack of culprits to blame for the Lakers’ 117–115 loss last night to the Warriors. While LeBron and AD had subpar games and the Lakers missed 11 free throws, the major culprit for the loss was Frank Vogel.
Between his wacky lineups and senseless favoring of veterans like DeAndre Jordan or Avery Bradley, Frank Vogel has obviously lost this Lakers team. The players aren’t listening to him and the time’s finally come to make a change. Vogel may not be the only reason the Lakers have struggled but it’s hard to envision a scenario where he suddenly turns this team around. Frank is already a lame duck coach. The Lakers just need to make it official.
Why should the Lakers make the change now instead of waiting until this summer? Because they need to stop the bleeding now and start winning. Otherwise, they risk losing the chance to re-sign Malik Monk this summer. More importantly, next season is the last season LeBron James is under contract with the Lakers. The last thing the Lakers want is for LeBron James to suddenly start thinking about taking his talent to some other NBA team.
The other reason for the Lakers making the change now rather than later is it will give them an opportunity to test drive Phil Handy as the head coach of the future. In many ways, Phil could be the perfect coach for the L.A. Lakers. He’s a respected former player who’s greatest strength has been his ability to connect with NBA players whether superstars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, or Kawhi Leonard or young guns like Austin Reaves or Malik Monk.
Of all the Lakers coaches, Phil Handy has the best understanding of the power of offense. Most of Handy’s player development success has been expanding players’ offensive repertoires with new moves and counters. Handy’s approach has always been showing players what to do visually by working with them one-on-one on the court, actually teaching them by showing them exactly what to do. That approach resonates with players.
Phil Handy is going to be part of the next wave of new NBA coaches. He was a finalist for the Washington Wizards head coaching gig last season and has been one of the most highly sought after assistant coaches in the NBA. Firing Frank Vogel and promoting Phil Handy to Interim Head Coach could be the only potential game-changing move left for the Lakers’ front office to deploy to try and get the attention of this frustrating, disappointing roster.
Wasting the last 25 games left in this season by allowing Vogel to continue to replicate the same mistakes that have plagued the team all season would be senseless. Time for Lakers to fire Frank Vogel and give Phil Handy a shot.
Net rating for Frank’s starting lineup last night was -15.0. They played a total of 9 minutes. No other lineup played more than 5 minutes. Seven other lineups played a total of 21 minutes and posted excellent positive net ratings. The Lakers once again were down 16 points early in the game due to Vogel’s fascination with wacky starting lineups.
Lakers can’t waste these final 25 games by letting Frank continue to lose this team. LeBron and AD have had enough, You could see it in their eyes last night as they lost the game once again.
All five Lakers starters other than Russell Westbrook had negative net ratings. Once again, Frank’s starting lineup put the Lakers in a hole that cost them dearly to climb out of. Time to fire Frank and give Phil Handy a test drive as Lakers head coach. I think he could be this Lakers’ team’s version of Pat Riley.
Combined salary for LeBron James and Anthony Davis: $76, 541, 904.00
If that ain’t motivation to show up and give effort for 48 the coach won’t matter.
AD no-showed in the 4th and LeBron went 1-10. Bradley wasn’t the problem dude.
Bradley had worst net rating on entire team last night.
Because he’s on the floor when the game matters against the best guys. Lol.
All it’ll take for you to flip is one good game from Avery and then you’ll be all like “I owe Bradley an apology, I booted him out the line up 674 times last week but he was great” when what you SHOULD be doing is respecting the man’s tenacity and grit for taking on the hardest assignments. Is it Bradley’s fault there isn’t a center to funnel his man to? No. Is it Bradley’s fault LeBron has been half-assing his defense all season? No. This is what comes of depleting the team. You know what would be funny? If Phil did take over and stuck with Bradley. My bet is you would be all like GENIUS move!!!! Lol. Tom nobody is happy where the Lakers are right now. Let’s just leave it at that. It won’t be fixed until the summer, at best. Might take trading AD to really restock the team. Hope it doesn’t come to that.
Won’t happen. Honestly, not sure it would be a good “audition” for Phil. Tough to come into a mess like this and do anything positive. Plus, I don’t think Frank has lost the players this season anymore than any season in the past.
Agree though that he has some wacky ideas when it comes to line ups. Need to stop playing Trevor, especially in games where Dwight can go. Stop the small ball experiment as it leads to us getting killed on the boards. We had a hefty rebounding edge at the half, lost it when we played James at center too much. That doesn’t work well, either.
A lot of what we’re doing in these games feels like it would work better in a 7 game series dictated by match ups. Time for our superstars to admit that they can’t do everything, need someone who’s willing to box out and fight for boards, and allow AD and LBJ to be the elite weak side/help defenders that they are. or at least that they could be, not sure either is motivated enough.
Swap Bradley with Monk, give Reaves Trevor’s minutes so he can fast track his learning process, ditch small ball unless you can figure out how to rebound using it, and above all remind AD he gets paid a crap ton of cash to show in all of the games for the entire game. No more loafing.
You’re probably right but I’m not predicting what I think is going to happen. I’m arguing for what SHOULD happen. It’s so easy to always say that’s not going to happen as your counter to my article. Same ole, same ole. SMH.
We’ve all complained about Vogel’s lineups and we all know he is not going to relent. Bradley will still start despite the eye test and analytics confirming he is not the solution. Same with Trevor. Those are things that are not going to change with Frank.
There is clearly a scenario where the Lakers continue to swirl around the drain same as always with the same crappy starting lineups leaving us in a double digit hole.
Time for the Lakers to think outside of the box. Frank is a lame duck. Fire him now and give Handy a shot.
Reality. Deal with it or don’t, your choice. Your glass went from full to empty at the drop of a hat. Mine? Been tooting the same things since the summer, you go from full optimist to full destructo. Glass is chock full of what I THINK will happen, not dreamweaving.
Frank coaches an elite defense with the right players, that’s a proven fact. Did it without AD and LBJ for much of last season. His offense leaves something to be desired, yes. His rotations aren’t the best but at least he’s consistent in that he favors vets. On any team with James your offense will revolve around him. James sucked down the stretch last night, result? Loss.
You went from “three super stars is the way!” to “three superstars doesn’t work!” faster than a Kardashian changes outfits. Flip flopping on that one cracks me up.
L.M.A.O. indeed…
The real thing is I don’t think you set Handy up for success putting him in this position. You just look like you’re throwing pasta at the wall and hoping something sticks. That’s not intelligent, that’s desperate. If they were going to fire Frank you should have done so a lot earlier.
I am of the opinion that we can still find a way to compete better this season, as is. I’ve been saying, thinking and SHOULDing that all season long. Steady as she goes, my man. Not pasta flinging or flip flopping on things that haven’t worked out as expected. Three superstars could work IF you spend on a team to surround them. We did not.
Still, for my part, I prefer a better team to a slogan or notion. We had a better team the last 2 seasons. We don’t anymore, it’s gone and it’s not coming back. It has to be rebuilt and that should be done with care, consideration and planning. Knee jerk reactions aren’t saving jack.
I get being frustrated with the squad, they’ve underwhelmed all season long. But just because I’ve been steady and consistent in my opinions about what works, what doesn’t and the issues I’ve had building the team don’t get all ruffled about it.
1st law of coaching: The new one is always better than the guy who just got fired:))
Ha!