Frank Vogel started his postgame press conference in familiar form late Friday night, plopping down in his interview room chair after 11 p.m. and tipping things off in the most predictable of ways.
“Questions?” the Lakers coach asked the room full of reporters.
In calmer times, like back in mid-September when Carmelo Anthony wasn’t afraid to admit this is a title-or-bust team if ever there was one, this sort of opening line was nothing more than an innocuous way to start the latest media conversation. But in this sensitive setting at the quarter point of the season, after the Lakers fell below .500 (10-11) with a triple-overtime loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings in which they blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead, his opening line was more of a declaration than it was a query.
Questions.
So. Many. Questions.
Starting with…
Is Vogel’s seat warm?
Only Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, general manager Rob Pelinka and trusted advisor Kurt Rambis likely know if Vogel is truly in trouble. OK, you could probably add LeBron James, Anthony Davis and their agent, Rich Paul, to that list, too. But there’s no clarity from this vantage point in terms of the organizational outlook on Vogel’s status.
Still, it’s obvious and fair to ask about Vogel’s security at this juncture, based on both historical context and recent developments. For starters, there’s the age-old reality that any coach of a LeBron James team will face serious pressure whenever the results are falling short of the expectations.
Paul Silas. Brendan Malone. Mike Brown. Erik Spoelstra. David Blatt. Tyronn Lue. Luke Walton. All of them did this job knowing the weight of James’ greatness would bring with it the likelihood of sleepless nights. And while Vogel has certainly earned patience from his bosses because of the 2019-20 title run, it still spoke volumes that his well-deserved extension given during the summer was — as we reported in late September — only for one season (through 2022-23).
As longtime NBA scribe Marc Stein first noted Thursday, there is indeed growing chatter in both coaching circles and the coaching agent world that Vogel needs to turn this around sooner rather than later. That’s never a foolproof indicator of what’s to come, but the Kings’ recent choice to fire Walton and promote Alvin Gentry reminded us that it shouldn’t be ignored either.
These are wildly different situations, to be sure, but the general calculus remains roughly the same. Frustration rises. You can’t fire the players. Something must be done to change the mood. That sort of thing.
The obvious counter to the Vogel scrutiny, of course, is that he wasn’t the one who rebuilt the roster that won it all two Octobers ago and lost so many key defenders along the way. Still, the addition of Russell Westbrook to the James-Davis superstar core meant the stakes were all-or-nothing again. No franchise believes in the virtue of star power more than the one that employs Vogel, and that ethos isn’t about to change anytime soon.
What’s more, it doesn’t help that Vogel’s calling card — the defense — is a major problem area at the moment. After boasting the league’s third-best defense two seasons ago and the top defense in 2020-21, the Lakers are currently 20th. Even with James missing 11 of 21 games to this point and various other absences playing a smaller part, it’s not a good look for any Vogel-led team to struggle so mightily on that end of the floor.
The Lakers are 22nd in offensive rating and 24th (!) in net rating, per NBA.com/stats. Against the Kings, the Lakers were on track to allow the second-lowest total of the season (100 points in regulation) before it all fell apart from there (41 Kings points in the extra 15 minutes of game time, with De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton finishing with a combined 78 points).
Did we mention, by the way, that the Kings were playing without two of their best players in Harrison Barnes and Richaun Holmes? It doesn’t get much worse than this. Or does it?
Can the Lakers’ schedule save them?
The month ahead is either tailor-made for a Lakers turnaround or just easy enough to put Vogel in peril. There’s a home game Sunday against Detroit (4-15), with the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart set to share the floor with James for the first time since their ugly altercation Nov. 21.
As the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers showed Friday afternoon, when they led Detroit by as many as 29 points in a 107-96 win, any decent team should have no problems handling this rebuilding bunch. I went to both games at Staples Center on this doubleheader day, and the contrast between the two home teams’ performances was impossible to miss.
Lue, who is in his second season as the Clippers coach after coming so close to landing the Lakers job before Vogel was hired, found himself pulling players late in the name of regular-season rest. All in all, the Clippers are a team that has all sorts of excuses to fall out of contention but which remains relevant in the parity-filled Western Conference.
Hours later, the Lakers would play their fourth overtime game in the past 11 (and fifth of the season) while forging ahead with their painstaking style. To wit: Their last double-digit win — one of two all season — was against Houston on Oct. 31. And lest anyone forget, these same Lakers were down big to Detroit in the aforementioned matchup before rallying in the second half after James and Stewart were ejected. Based on that alone, the rematch should hardly be considered a gimme game.
So, let’s take a look at the uncertain road ahead from there. The Lakers play at Sacramento (8-12) Tuesday, host the Clippers (11-8) Friday and Boston (10-10) Dec. 7 and then travel to Memphis (9-10) and Oklahoma City (6-13).
It’s Orlando (4-16), Dallas (10-7), Minnesota (9-10), and Chicago (13-7) from there. There’s not a team that is widely seen as a title contender on the schedule until Dec. 21, when Phoenix (16-3) comes to town. We’ll know in a few weeks if this stretch is ultimately a Lakers blessing or a curse.
Are the Lakers reaching for the panic button just yet?
To hear Davis tell it, the answer is an emphatic no.
With Westbrook at his side in his postgame press conference, Davis talked about the need to “keep fighting” and how all of this uncomfortableness would go away if only they could go on a double-digit winning streak.
“A 10-game winning streak, (and) we’re 20-11; now you shut everybody up,” said Davis, who shot just 9 of 22 overall, missed all five of his 3s and finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 49 minutes. “But it’s on us. We’re gonna have to do it. … We’ve got a team that’s well put together that can win 10, 12, 15 games in a row. We can do it.”
Well, sure. And if they won 61 straight, they’d fall just short of the Warriors’ regular-season record of 73 wins. Thus far, however, the Lakers’ three-game winning streak against Cleveland (Oct. 29), Houston (Oct. 31) and Houston (again on Nov. 2) is their best stretch yet.
Westbrook, who had his fifth triple-double in a Lakers jersey (29 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds) against the Kings and was an efficient 10 of 18 from the field, downplayed the severity of it all, too.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s dramatic for us internally,” Westbrook said. “Like AD said, you have a sense of urgency, but we also understand adversity, understand bumps in the road, and one thing I live by is never, never, never panic. Never panic. Stick with each other.”
For Vogel’s part, he mentioned several times how — in his view — the early season struggles were expected. It’s a fair point, to be sure, especially given Westbrook’s penchant for starting slow with new teams only to come on in the second half of the season when the chemistry and cohesion finally come. Still, the pressure will remain until Vogel finds a way to turn this tide.
“We knew the early season was going to be bumpy, you know what I mean?” Vogel said. “This season is about peaking at the right time … and understanding that we’re going to use an 82-game season to learn each other and to grow each day, each game. You want to win games like this, but there’s a big picture mindset that we’re taking with this team.
“(But) when we get an opportunity to knock a team out, we just allow them to stick around, you know? A handful of plays, a turnover here, can’t get a rebound there, a defensive breakdown, a tough shot. We just haven’t been able to pull away.”
Frank Vogel started his postgame press conference in familiar form late Friday night, plopping down in his interview room chair after 11 p.m. and tipping things off in the most predictable of ways.
“Questions?” the Lakers coach asked the room full of reporters.
In calmer times, like back in mid-September when Carmelo Anthony wasn’t afraid to admit this is a title-or-bust team if ever there was one, this sort of opening line was nothing more than an innocuous way to start the latest media conversation. But in this sensitive setting at the quarter point of the season, after the Lakers fell below .500 (10-11) with a triple-overtime loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings in which they blew a 13-point fourth-quarter lead, his opening line was more of a declaration than it was a query.
Questions.
So. Many. Questions.
Starting with…
Is Vogel’s seat warm?
Only Lakers owner Jeanie Buss, general manager Rob Pelinka and trusted advisor Kurt Rambis likely know if Vogel is truly in trouble. OK, you could probably add LeBron James, Anthony Davis and their agent, Rich Paul, to that list, too. But there’s no clarity from this vantage point in terms of the organizational outlook on Vogel’s status.
Still, it’s obvious and fair to ask about Vogel’s security at this juncture, based on both historical context and recent developments. For starters, there’s the age-old reality that any coach of a LeBron James team will face serious pressure whenever the results are falling short of the expectations.
Paul Silas. Brendan Malone. Mike Brown. Erik Spoelstra. David Blatt. Tyronn Lue. Luke Walton. All of them did this job knowing the weight of James’ greatness would bring with it the likelihood of sleepless nights. And while Vogel has certainly earned patience from his bosses because of the 2019-20 title run, it still spoke volumes that his well-deserved extension given during the summer was — as we reported in late September — only for one season (through 2022-23).
As longtime NBA scribe Marc Stein first noted Thursday, there is indeed growing chatter in both coaching circles and the coaching agent world that Vogel needs to turn this around sooner rather than later. That’s never a foolproof indicator of what’s to come, but the Kings’ recent choice to fire Walton and promote Alvin Gentry reminded us that it shouldn’t be ignored either.
These are wildly different situations, to be sure, but the general calculus remains roughly the same. Frustration rises. You can’t fire the players. Something must be done to change the mood. That sort of thing.
The obvious counter to the Vogel scrutiny, of course, is that he wasn’t the one who rebuilt the roster that won it all two Octobers ago and lost so many key defenders along the way. Still, the addition of Russell Westbrook to the James-Davis superstar core meant the stakes were all-or-nothing again. No franchise believes in the virtue of star power more than the one that employs Vogel, and that ethos isn’t about to change anytime soon.
What’s more, it doesn’t help that Vogel’s calling card — the defense — is a major problem area at the moment. After boasting the league’s third-best defense two seasons ago and the top defense in 2020-21, the Lakers are currently 20th. Even with James missing 11 of 21 games to this point and various other absences playing a smaller part, it’s not a good look for any Vogel-led team to struggle so mightily on that end of the floor.
The Lakers are 22nd in offensive rating and 24th (!) in net rating, per NBA.com/stats. Against the Kings, the Lakers were on track to allow the second-lowest total of the season (100 points in regulation) before it all fell apart from there (41 Kings points in the extra 15 minutes of game time, with De’Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Tyrese Haliburton finishing with a combined 78 points).
Did we mention, by the way, that the Kings were playing without two of their best players in Harrison Barnes and Richaun Holmes? It doesn’t get much worse than this. Or does it?
Can the Lakers’ schedule save them?
The month ahead is either tailor-made for a Lakers turnaround or just easy enough to put Vogel in peril. There’s a home game Sunday against Detroit (4-15), with the Pistons’ Isaiah Stewart set to share the floor with James for the first time since their ugly altercation Nov. 21.
As the Kawhi Leonard-less Clippers showed Friday afternoon, when they led Detroit by as many as 29 points in a 107-96 win, any decent team should have no problems handling this rebuilding bunch. I went to both games at Staples Center on this doubleheader day, and the contrast between the two home teams’ performances was impossible to miss.
Lue, who is in his second season as the Clippers coach after coming so close to landing the Lakers job before Vogel was hired, found himself pulling players late in the name of regular-season rest. All in all, the Clippers are a team that has all sorts of excuses to fall out of contention but which remains relevant in the parity-filled Western Conference.
Hours later, the Lakers would play their fourth overtime game in the past 11 (and fifth of the season) while forging ahead with their painstaking style. To wit: Their last double-digit win — one of two all season — was against Houston on Oct. 31. And lest anyone forget, these same Lakers were down big to Detroit in the aforementioned matchup before rallying in the second half after James and Stewart were ejected. Based on that alone, the rematch should hardly be considered a gimme game.
So, let’s take a look at the uncertain road ahead from there. The Lakers play at Sacramento (8-12) Tuesday, host the Clippers (11-8) Friday and Boston (10-10) Dec. 7 and then travel to Memphis (9-10) and Oklahoma City (6-13).
It’s Orlando (4-16), Dallas (10-7), Minnesota (9-10), and Chicago (13-7) from there. There’s not a team that is widely seen as a title contender on the schedule until Dec. 21, when Phoenix (16-3) comes to town. We’ll know in a few weeks if this stretch is ultimately a Lakers blessing or a curse.
Are the Lakers reaching for the panic button just yet?
To hear Davis tell it, the answer is an emphatic no.
With Westbrook at his side in his postgame press conference, Davis talked about the need to “keep fighting” and how all of this uncomfortableness would go away if only they could go on a double-digit winning streak.
“A 10-game winning streak, (and) we’re 20-11; now you shut everybody up,” said Davis, who shot just 9 of 22 overall, missed all five of his 3s and finished with 23 points, eight rebounds and four assists in 49 minutes. “But it’s on us. We’re gonna have to do it. … We’ve got a team that’s well put together that can win 10, 12, 15 games in a row. We can do it.”
Well, sure. And if they won 61 straight, they’d fall just short of the Warriors’ regular-season record of 73 wins. Thus far, however, the Lakers’ three-game winning streak against Cleveland (Oct. 29), Houston (Oct. 31) and Houston (again on Nov. 2) is their best stretch yet.
Westbrook, who had his fifth triple-double in a Lakers jersey (29 points, 11 assists, 10 rebounds) against the Kings and was an efficient 10 of 18 from the field, downplayed the severity of it all, too.
“Yeah, I don’t think it’s dramatic for us internally,” Westbrook said. “Like AD said, you have a sense of urgency, but we also understand adversity, understand bumps in the road, and one thing I live by is never, never, never panic. Never panic. Stick with each other.”
For Vogel’s part, he mentioned several times how — in his view — the early season struggles were expected. It’s a fair point, to be sure, especially given Westbrook’s penchant for starting slow with new teams only to come on in the second half of the season when the chemistry and cohesion finally come. Still, the pressure will remain until Vogel finds a way to turn this tide.
“We knew the early season was going to be bumpy, you know what I mean?” Vogel said. “This season is about peaking at the right time … and understanding that we’re going to use an 82-game season to learn each other and to grow each day, each game. You want to win games like this, but there’s a big picture mindset that we’re taking with this team.
“(But) when we get an opportunity to knock a team out, we just allow them to stick around, you know? A handful of plays, a turnover here, can’t get a rebound there, a defensive breakdown, a tough shot. We just haven’t been able to pull away.”
