The Los Angeles Lakers' calamitous season officially came to an end over the weekend, and when the new campaign begins in October, a new head coach will be on the sideline and in charge of righting the ship. According to reports, the organization is soon expected to dismiss Frank Vogel, who spent the last three seasons in the role and led the Lakers to a championship in 2020.
Vogel had been on the hot seat for months. In January, The Athletic reported that the Lakers' front office was evaluating him on a game-to-game basis due to inconsistent and poor performances. Although Vogel's leadership qualities have recently been brought into question, the 48-year-old is now considered a scapegoat. For flawed roster management, injuries to key contributors, and on-court dysfunction explain the pitiful 33-win season and 11th-place finish.
"We knew it was coming. It's a little rough that it got out the way it did. I can't remember a head coach, in his press conference, having to acknowledge the report that he's out," Sam Amick of The Athletic told the Reiter Than You show on Monday. "The optics are really bad for the Lakers. It doesn't shock me that they made the choice they made. I get it. Doesn't mean this was Frank's fault.
"But it's the old cliche about, 'You can't fire the players,' and so this happens. I do think this long history for this franchise, post-Phil Jackson, of seemingly kind of treating head coaches without the most respect, is something that's a reputation they've earned and is going to stick, with the way they've handled the Vogel situation."
The entire NBA conversation between Amick and Reiter can be accessed in the audio player above.
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