Getty Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel looks on from the sidelines during a preseason bout with the Brooklyn Nets.
To the surprise of no one, Los Angeles Lakers fans were particularly ornery on social media following Wednesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Giving what might be the worst team in the NBA its first win of the season (after being up 26, no less) is a great way to bring out the boo-birds.
And while the La La Land faithful had a lot to gripe about in the wake of the setback, which dropped the Lakers to 2-3 on the campaign, head coach Frank Vogel definitely got the worst of it.
Vogel is, of course, less than two years removed from helping the Lakers bring home the title. He probably gets a mulligan for last season, too, with all of the injuries that occurred. Nevertheless, just one week into the 2021-22 season, some fans are ready to run him out of town.
Even if much of what currently ails the team can be attributed to people above his pay grade.
Lakers Fans Burying Vogel on Twitter
There are definitely things to say about what Vogel may or may not be doing in the Lakers’ huddle. In the OKC loss, his squad had two possessions in the final minute — directly following timeouts — with opportunities to tie the game at 118. The first one resulted in Russell Westbrook pulling up from 26 feet just three seconds into the shot clock and misfiring.
That was followed in short order by an air-balled, Malik Monk stepback from 27 feet out.
As former NBA guard and ESPN analyst Tim Legler said on the network on Thursday morning, “I just thought they panicked. They didn’t show any poise. And I thought Frank Vogel, coming out of two timeouts, ending up with a Russell Wesbtrook pull-up 3 and a Malik Monk pull-up 3, with a ton of time left to see if you can attack the rim, see if you could make that a 1-point game, I just didn’t understand it at all, their late-game execution.”
Whether drawn up by Vogel or not, the fact that those were the shots the Lakers got on consecutive crunch-time possessions is disconcerting. And fans are letting the Lakers coach hear it on Twitter.
“Vogel should be fired. You’re down 3 and you have Russ shoot a 3 to tie? RUSS?!!!!” tweeted one fan.
“I’m convinced Frank Vogel is against the Lakers winning,” added another detractor.
“You got a team that don’t play defense and a coach who specialize in defense, horrible rotations and clueless on offense,” tweeted another fan. “Vogel is not the coach for this team. We ain’t winning the chip until they change the coach.”
Then there was this all-timer:
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Not to Blame?
There’s no sugar-coating the fact that things have been pretty ugly for the Lakers in the early season. Vogel is a convenient scapegoat, and he probably has some stuff to address on his end, but the front office may bear the brunt of the responsibility here.
Wrote CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn:
GM Rob Pelinka went out of his way to bring back several friendly faces from the championship season, but they’ve largely aged out of any defensive utility, and the new faces he added to supplement them have, thus far, struggled mightily.
For his part, Westbrook has been the poster child for the latter concept. His current effective field goal of 44.4% is on pace to be his worst number in 12 years and he is coughing the ball up six times per game on average. Meanwhile, his defensive rating of 112.4 is the second-worst mark on the team.
Pelinka is the one who signed Westbrook, though. And it was always going to take time for him and the rest of the Lakers to gel on the court, regardless of Vogel’s coaching.
Whether Vogel will be afforded that time remains to be seen, but it’s worth noting that he was seemingly Pelinka’s third choice when he was hired. For various reasons, Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams were the coaches he coveted.
So, if the Lakers’ growing pains continue for an extended period of time, it may be more than the fans looking at other options.
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