The Los Angeles Lakers fired Frank Vogel on Monday, picking their titular head coach to take the fall for one of the most disappointing seasons in NBA history.
Vogel was under contract until next season, but almost nothing has gone right in the last two seasons for the rosters assembled by vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka and coached by Vogel, who has 127- 98 went club.
Pelinka declined to elaborate Monday on why he and owner Jeanie Buss felt Vogel needed to be fired.
“Today will not be a day of pointing the finger and revealing all the specific reasons,” Pelinka said. “We just felt like it was time for a new voice at the highest organizational level. … That shouldn’t say anything against the unbelievable performances that Frank Vogel has achieved. He’s been a great coach here and he’ll be a great coach elsewhere.”
| Coach | games | Win pts |
|---|---|---|
| Frank Vogel, ’19-22 | 225 | .564 |
| Luke Walton, ’16-19 | 246 | .398 |
| Byron Scott, ’14-16 | 164 | .232 |
| Mike D’Antoni, ’12-14 | 154 | .435 |
| Mike Brown, ’11-12 | 71 | .592 |
| **Bernie Bickerstaff: 4-1 as an interim in ’12 | ||
| — ESPN stats and information | ||
Pelinka doesn’t plan to replace Vogel right away and he said he hasn’t even compiled a list of potential candidates. The GM said it would be “great” to have a coach ahead of the June draft, but the Lakers’ search will be “thorough and methodical.”
The Lakers have not fired any of Vogel’s coaching staff at this point, league sources told ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.
The Lakers finished the 2021-22 season with a 33-49 record and failed to qualify for the play-in tournament.
“This has been a disappointing Lakers season on every level,” said Pelinka. “Given the disappointment, our fans expect more, and in every way. It starts in the front office I lead and our ability to create the right roster. It starts with the coaches holding the players accountable and making sure there is an execution on the pitch.”
Continuity has been a constant challenge for Vogel and the Lakers this season as they struggled with injuries to stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis and a roster build-up with challenges that included limited shooting and athletics.
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James spoke to the media Monday morning before Vogel’s fate was revealed by the Lakers’ front office.
“I respect Frank as a coach, as a man,” James said. “Our partnership that we’ve had over the few years here has been nothing but openness and great conversations. This is a guy who gives everything for the game and prepared us every night. … I don’t know what will happen when Frank is here, but I have nothing but respect for him.”
Los Angeles was the only team not to have a single five-man lineup play 100 minutes together, according to research by ESPN Stats & Information. Although the Lakers went into the season with high expectations, they were only able to keep James, Davis and Russell Westbrook together for 21 games. They went 11-10 in those contests.
The Lakers finished the season in the bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency and ranked 21st in defensive standings after finishing first in 2020-21 and third in 2019-20.
LA lost 18 of 24 games after the All-Star break, with only the Portland Trail Blazers, Houston Rockets and Indiana Pacers finishing with worse records during that span.
Vogel was hired in May 2019 to assemble a cohesive team around James and Davis, who were officially acquired by the New Orleans Pelicans two months later. Vogel’s plans immediately worked: his first team survived the NBA’s COVID-19 shutdown and then won the Lakers’ 17th NBA championship in the Orlando bubble.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Associated Press contributed to this report.