By: Mike Rifkin
The Lakers fired Frank Vogel on Monday after three seasons. The Lakers missed the playoffs and playin tournament this season with a record of 33-49. Vogel in his three seasons as the Lakers coach went 127-98 and won an NBA Championship in 2019-2020. Now Vogel was the easiest person to blame for the lack of success the Lakers achieved this season, but was it really his fault? There are a few people to blame for the lack of success of the Lakers for arguably one of the biggest disappointing seasons in NBA history. It doesn’t have to do with coaching, it has to do with roster construction.
A lot of people deserve blame for the Lakers terrible season. Let’s start with General Manager Rob Pelinka. Pelinka put together an awful roster. The Lakers traded Kyle Kuzma, Kentavious Caldwell -Pope, Montrezl Harrell and a 2021 first round pick for former MVP Russell Westbrook. Westbrook averaged 18.5 points per game, his lowest since 2009-10 his second season in the league. With the money owed to Westbrook, Lebron James and Anthony Davis Pelinka couldn’t put together a great roster. Once the NBA offseason begins people will watch what happens with Westbrook. Westbrook has a player option at 47 million dollars and not a lot of teams are going to be interested. The Lakers would have to probably sweeten the deal with a draft pick that the Lakers have a limited amount of based on another trade.
Another trade Pelinka and then advisor Laker legend Magic Johnson deserve some heat for is the trade that the Lakers got star forward Anthony Davis. Everyone knew that Davis wanted to go from the Pelicans to the Lakers and the Pelicans made them pay a heavy price. The Pelicans acquired point guard Lonzo Ball who has since gone to the Bulls, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart and three first round picks. Davis was a beast when the Lakers won the NBA title in the bubble. In the 2020 playoffs Davis averaged 27.7 points per game, 9.7 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. Davis was limited to 40 games this season due to injury. When healthy Davis is an elite player but the Lakers may want to focus more on the long term than the short term which might mean to consider trading Davis.
Lebron James also draws some blame here, not for his play Lebron was the only reason the Lakers had a shot at the playoffs. Lebron deserves blame for the fact that he has to sign off on any move Pelinka and the front office make. Whoever becomes the coach will have their work cut out for them but the Lakers offseason will definitely be intriguing. But to be among the elite not just in the NBA but in the Western Conference the Lakers definitely need to reconstruct their roster. One thing is for sure Frank Vogel was an easy scapegoat.
The Sports Insanity Network 