In the Hot Seat: Frank Vogel

I had already called for the dismissal of Frank Vogel a couple of years prior to the rest of the world realizing that something is wrong with his leadership of the Lakers.  I still felt that same way after the Lakers won the bubble championship.  Why?  Because the bubble hit right at the peak of NBA teams adopting a freestyle manner of play.  So it would only be logical that the squad with the most talent, i.e. Lebron and AD, would win it all (though I honestly thought the Blazers were better overall and would beat them in the first round).  And that was also around the era of the NBA when I had concluded that coaches would soon be replaced by robots - a belief that first started when Tyronn Lue led the Cavs to a championship.

But these days, I don't really have anything against Vogel.  What Lebron wants to do on the court, he does.  And when you have a superstar who is unanimously considered more powerful than the coach, then the other players will follow suit.  And this is especially true if some of those other players also happen to be, all things considered, more powerful than the coach.

Say what you want about the late Jerry Krause, but if there's one thing The Last Dance convinced me of is that he was an expert at fucking with Michael Jordan.  Michael Jordan, at least to me, doesn't really appear to be some type of exceptional A-hole.  A bit of a bully?  Yes, which is kinda understandable considering he's was the lead player in a all-male, contact sports' league.  So Jerry Krause might have been fuckin with him, you know, threatening His Airness' tenure with the Bulls and all types of shit, just so MJ wouldn't like turn into a Lebron.  But that particular tactic wouldn't work with Lebron since he really doesn't give a shit about changing teams anyway.

PRACTICAL SOLUTION TO THE LAKERS' PROBLEM

The most practical solution to the Lakers problem, since they seem adverse to playing Dwight Howard, would be to turn Russell Westbrook into a pass-first PG.  Another basketball documentary that recently came out, Passion Play, suggested that Westbrook started averaging triple-doubles mainly because people told him he couldn't do it or some shit.  So maybe now he has to rather challenge himself to like average more assists + rebounds than points.  And remember that little-ass Westbrook can rebound better than most forwards.  So imagine if he really like focused on that aspect of his game.

If Westbrook were to suddenly become, say more Rajon-like, that wouldn't solve all of the Lakers' current problems.  But at least it'll be a start in terms of the players setting a more steady direction for the offense, knowing that Russ, arguably the greatest athlete currently in the game, is dedicating himself to more of a support role.  And as far as who's coaching the Lakers, what does it really matter anyway?  And by the way, where Magic at?

SOLUTION

Back in the aughts you could put Lebron on any roster, and the team would instantly become contenders.  Since then he has spearheaded in the age of superteaming, on top of Father Time rearing his head.  And yes, the Lakers can be considered akin to a superteam, as old as they are, if AD were playing.  But without him, it's like I don't think anybody is intimidated by LAL anymore.