Frank Vogel's time with the Los Angeles Lakers ended unceremoniously last week after what was a nightmarish season trying to make things work with Russell Westbrook.
While many preached patience on the team gelling together, including Frank Vogel himself during his many, many exasperated postgame press conferences, the Lakers coach was able to open up a little bit more with the season already in the toilet.
According to Lakers reporter for The Athletic Bill Oram during an appearance on the Locked on Lakers podcast (8:15 mark via u/BigBet0), Vogel had already called time of death on the season before even playing their first regular season game.
“If you go back to the story I wrote a week ago, I had an exclusive interview with Frank Vogel. I remember how I asked him this question. I said, ‘When did first pick up on this was not going to be as smooth sailing as you thought? What was the first domino of all the things that went wrong?' And he went back to the preseason and he said when Russ and AD played, before LeBron ever played, it didn't look good.
“That's before the Lakers lost a single game in the regular season. Very telling, very damning and I think reflects poorly on the decision-makers.”
There was indeed doubters that the Russell Westbrook move would work out the moment the trade had gone through. But for the Lakers' own coach in Frank Vogel to witness for himself and decide it wasn't plausible is certainly a different level of skepticism.
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