THIS Is Why Laker Fans Want Frank Vogel FIRED (And Why That's a Bad Idea)

The Lakers are off to a disappointing start, and many are blaming head coach Frank Vogel for the team’s struggles. There are those that even want to have him fired. In this video, we will discuss why the fans are angry at him and why firing him would be a mistake.

Frank Vogel has made some questionable decisions this season. And it seems like he sticks to these bad decisions despite the consistent bad outcomes. A good example of this is playing Rondo and Westbrook at the same time. Most people that understand basketball know that that’s an absolutely terrible idea. If you look at the plus minus when these two are on the floor, it’s horrendous.

Another example is playing a big lineup, with Deandre Jordan in particular. Again there are spacing issues, and defensive issues. If you’re playing two bigs, you should always win the rebounding battle. Yet somehow with this lineup they always find a way to lose. And another thing that probably bugs me the most is playing 3 guard, sometimes even 4 guard lineups. These lineups are way too small to do anything meaningful defensively.

Now despite these questionable and frustrating decisions as a head coach, the Lakers shouldn’t fire him. The biggest reason is quite simple. There aren’t any better options out there. Honestly, who would you hire to replace Frank Vogel? Would you promote one of the assistants like David Fizdale? That’s not a great option. His track record as a head coach speaks for itself. Phil Jackson’s not gonna come out of retirement, nor should he. Would you hire a college coach? Maybe someone from overseas? None of these are great options and not something you can just force onto an already struggling team. You can’t just fire a coach and not have someone lined up that you think will do a better job. Then you’re just firing him to fire him. That just causes more problems. If he were to get fired, they would then have to implement a new system, the team would have to relearn everything, they would have to establish a relationship with the coach. It will be like restarting training camp all over again. It will set the team back even further. A lot of these players, and the most important ones (Lebron and AD) already have a relationship with Vogel. They won a championship together a year ago! A few bad games to start the season shouldn’t be enough to fire a championship coach who’s had a good record up to this point. Especially since we haven’t seen him coach a fully healthy team yet this season.

Now I’m not saying that he doesn’t deserve any blame. We’ve already discussed his questionable coaching decisions. But there are many at fault here when it comes to the Lakers disappointing season. It starts with the players. They’re the ones playing poorly. They’re the ones showing little effort. They’re the ones being inconsistent. They’re the ones giving up leads. And sure, you’d expect the coach to instill some form of pride and have the players buy-into a championship standard of basketball. But at the end of the day, it’s the players that are on the court losing ballgames.

I think the person who deserves the most blame is Rob Pelinka. The real issue with this team is the roster construction. A player can only play to the best of his abilities. And a lot of these players are doing that, and it's just not enough. Sometimes you’re just a bad defender, sometimes you’re just a bad shooter. It’s management’s job to get the players that are capable of playing championship basketball. Pelinka focused too much on the offense. He prioritized surrounding the big 3 with shooters rather than good defenders, which has been the formula the past few seasons and one that got them a championship. He also signed too many guards and not enough wings. Which is why Vogel is forced to play these awkward lineups. Basically all he has to work with are guards and bigs. So he has to play either really small or really big.

There’s some things that effort can’t fix, no matter how hard you try. If you’re 6-4, you’re not gonna be able to grow 4 inches to guard a bigger player. If you’re a slow footed 7 footer, there’s no way you’re gonna be able to keep up with a quicker player. And obviously injuries are contributing to the poor play as well. If you don’t have all your players, you can’t play to your full potential. But that’s another failure of the roster construction. Obviously injuries are part of the game. But the chances of them occurring increase exponentially when most of your roster is made up of players that are only a few years away from retirement. Older players tend to get injured more frequently, and are out for longer periods of time.