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The Los Angeles Lakers have been disappointing their fans right, left, and center this season. The 2020 NBA Champs have been struggling to win games and they currently occupy the 6th spot in the Western Conference. Expectations were high before the year began, with the Russell Westbrook trade from the Washington Wizards, but they have not been met. Due to this, word has been spreading about a possible coaching change. Frank Vogel led the team to the title in 2020 but has faced increasing criticism since. To avoid this, here are two major adjustments Vogel can do to avoid being fired as Lakers coach.
Lakers coach Frank Vogel job-saving adjustments
Slow it down
Right now, the Lakers are playing the league's second-fastest basketball, by the pace metric. The issue with this is fairly simple – the Lakers are old. The main guys in the squad are either over 30 years old, or they are named Anthony Davis. The idea before the season was clear, and it was to preserve the stars for the postseason and then attack at full speed. Unfortunately for Lakers fans, the plan is not going well. It was widely believed that the Lakers will be in the top couple of spots, where they can calmly enter the playoffs, but they are now in a battle to enter the postseason without the play-in tournament beforehand.
If Vogel wants to keep his job, he needs to come back to his Pacers days and make these Lakers slow it down. It is difficult to do this, as both primary ball-handlers for the Lakers really want to push the pace. However, at the end of the day, he is the coach and it is his decision. If he can get LeBron James and Russell Westbrook to play more half-court offense, he will be able to achieve multiple things.
Firstly, Vogel would be able to tighten a sometimes hectic attack, which is currently ranked 23rd in the league in terms of offensive rating. By playing a more methodical offense, the Lakers can work off of James' genius passes and court vision to secure better opportunities in that section of the court. Secondly, a slower attack would immediately slow down the opposition as well, and better preserve the fragile health statuses of his players. With all key players, except Westbrook and Anthony, missing time, this should be the most important reason to slow the pace down.
Frank Vogel has experience with slower teams. When the statistics of his Pacers teams are taken into consideration, those teams were routinely in the bottom ten slowest teams in the league, by the pace metric. Additionally, that Pacers generation came very close to the NBA title, playing back-to-back conference finals. The Lakers need that success and while there are major differences between the rosters, this might be the way to go for Vogel to not only cover up the deficiencies of his squad but also save the Lakers from being injured so much.
Get centers out of the rotation
Now, it needs to be clarified – Anthony Davis is not affected here, obviously. Davis is more of a power forward, and he has been playing minutes at center this season. According to Basketball Reference, Davis is playing 68% of his minutes at center this season, the highest percentage since the 2018-19 season in New Orleans. However, even though most of his minutes come at center, he can absolutely stay there. The Lakers need Davis to play, whatever his position may be.
This specifically is referring to DeAndre Jordan and Dwight Howard. Right now, out of all five-man lineups that the Lakers featured this year for at least 30 minutes, two include Jordan at center. One of them has a 15.7 point difference and the other one has an 18.3 point difference, both to the negative. Contrasted with other five-man lineups, all but one are in the positive point difference. Howard is not featured in any lineups with over 30 minutes played, but when all five-man lineups are taken into consideration, only one of them that features Howard has a positive point difference. Overall, one even has an almost comical point difference – a minus 31.
Overall, both Jordan and Howard are now hurting the Lakers with their play. When Jordan was benched last season by the Nets, many analysts were of the opinion that Jordan could still be useful. Also, many believed that the Lakers losing Howard, who won the 2020 title with them, was a massive part of the poor season they had last year. However, their play in limited playtime has just proven that their skills are somewhat irrelevant in the modern NBA. If Frank Vogel can connect the dots, even the limited playtime they have had should be completely reduced to garbage time or very specific matchups.
Generally speaking, the Lakers are still in an okay spot, at least when the context is considered. The Lakers have had a plethora of injuries, a major part in Westbrook to accommodate, and a lot of veteran players with different concerns. Being in the fight for the playoffs is not that bad, and when paired up with the fact that Westbrook usually gets going around the All-Star break and further, there are positives. However, as all NBA fans know, when a team with James is not perfect, it is usually the coach that pays the ultimate price. Thus, Frank Vogel really needs to turn it around as fast as possible.
