Frank Vogel Should Win Coach Of The Year
Frank Vogel is a coach that deserves respect. For years his Pacer teams fought as well as anyone against the LeBron James Heat teams. Vogel eventually years later landed the head Laker job and even won a title doing so. Vogel even clearly garners the respect of LeBron which I’m not sure any head coach has been able to do with the lone exception being MAYBE Ty Lue.
Unfortunately, Vogel is being dragged through the mud as the 2021-2022 Lakers are off to a horrific start by their standards. Somehow Vogel is being blamed for the egregious Russell Westbrook trade, Anthony Davis never being healthy, letting Alex Caruso leave, bringing DeAndre Jordan over, and having a roster that doesn’t have enough shooting. Yes, that’s right. Vogel is to blame!
Of course, this is the pattern of any struggling LeBron team. LeBron comes to town, forces management to do the dumbest personnel decisions of all-time, the gets the coach fired for his mismanagement. Except for this time, the head coach is fighting back.
Yesterday, the Lakers lost to the Pacers by 7. Vogel benched Westbrook in crunch time and had this to say about the decision.
You hear that?
What’s that sound?
Oh, it’s even got a good smell to it?
Yes, that’s right. We FINALLY found a head coach that gets it. We all know EXACTLY what Vogel was thinking.
“Screw this. Let’s be honest; Westbrook stinks. Nobody is winning anything with this guy. I’m not blaming this bum. He can rot on the bench. If I’m getting fired for this shit show management created, I’m going down swinging rather than being punched out on strike three looking.”
It’s exactly why Vogel should win coach of the year. He’s turning chicken salad around here with this flawed Lakers team. Any logical person knew the second the Lakers traded for Westbrook, this team got worse… because that’s exactly what Westbrook does on any team. Because, of course, it’s math so it’s not hard to figure out.
Again, we’re not blaming Westbrook. In fact, we defend him now. I just also want to give credit to Vogel. He had the courage to bench Westbrook and somehow has this Lakers team hovering around .500. If that doesn’t deserve Coach of the Year, I don’t know what does.
