Lakers' New Hire Was Not In Demand Before Pelinka Came Calling

Los Angeles Lakers hired Frank Vogel as their head coach after parting ways with Luke Walton after yet another disappointing season that saw them miss the playoffs for a franchise record sixth consecutive campaign. The former Indiana Pacers and Orlando Magic head coach, however, was not the Lakers’ first preference to fill the vacancy.

Vogel was fired by the Pacers in 2016 despite winning 58% of his regular season games, taking them to consecutive Eastern Conference finals and making the playoffs in five out of the six seasons he was in-charge of the team. He then spent the last two seasons with the Orlando Magic, where he struggled to 29-53 and 25-57 record in two seasons, which saw him sacked midway through the 2018-19 campaign.

The 46-year-old did not have too much interest from NBA franchise’s after his poor run with Magic and admitted recently that it did “take a toll”. But the Lakers, who were first rejected by Monty Williams and then had a falling out with Tyronn Lue, came knocking and offered Vogel the job with Jason Kidd as his top assistant.

Vogel is certain to be under tremendous pressure to end their playoff hiatus but with LeBron James and Anthony Davis now on the roster he will be expected to make a deep run in the playoffs and even challenge for the 2020 NBA championship.

"I wasn’t coming off the type of success I had in Indiana,” Vogel said recently, as quoted on Yahoo Sports. “So I did feel around the league that the interest wasn’t quite as strong … I don’t know if I would say there’s any doubting of myself, but it does take its toll on you.”

“We are human at the end of the day and when you’re not having success as a coach you like to feel like you could take any group and make them play hard, play together, share the basketball, work on a defensive end and win. You know what I mean? But the chips don’t always align that way, you’re not always going to have success,” he added.

Vogel is likely to get his chance with the Lakers but a poor start to the new campaign is certain to build pressure and with Kidd as assistant, there is certain to be some questions about a potential takeover by the Nets legend.