The Los Angeles Lakers fired Frank Vogel after three seasons, choosing their championship-winning head coach to take the first fall for one of the most disappointing seasons in NBA history. Los Angeles wildly underachieved this season, finishing 33-49.
ESPN reported Vogel’s imminent firing immediately after the Lakers finished the season by beating Denver in overtime Sunday night. During an awkward postgame news conference, Vogel admitted he had not yet been told of the club’s decision before it was leaked to ESPN.
Despite another impressive season from the 37-year-old James, the Lakers never jelled this season with a roster including nine players over 30 and 11 players who weren’t with the team last season. Davis managed to play in only 40 of their 82 games, while Westbrook struggled mightily to fit into the Lakers’ team concept during one of the worst seasons of his professional career.
Although Vogel remained publicly confident in his ability to fix the problems created by the injuries and two years of high-risk roster assembly, the coach never came up with any consistent solutions to Los Angeles’ woes.But while Vogel received ample criticism for his curious decisions on player rotations and his lack of an offensive game plan, the Lakers’ single biggest problem in Vogel’s final two seasons was Davis’ inability to stay healthy.
James spoke to the media Monday morning before Vogel’s fate was revealed by the Lakers’ front office. Pelinka has thoroughly altered that championship roster since then, and the results have been catastrophic. Less than a full calendar year after the triumph in the bubble, only James, Davis and Talen Horton-Tucker remained on the roster to start this season — along with Dwight Howard, who left the team and returned.