Frank Vogel coached his last game for Los Angeles Lakers. Vogel was fired by the Lakers on Monday, Team announced. The Lakers, the 2020 NBA champion under Vogel, entered the season as a favorite in the Western Conference. They failed to live up to that level due to a combination of injuries, age, a poorly built roster and mismanagement of that roster, and last Tuesday, they were officially disqualified from the playoff. They closed the season with a record 33-49. Now Vogel is paying the price for their failure and was removed from his position as coach less than two years after leading the Lakers to the title.

“Today will not be a day to point fingers and liquidate all identified causes,” said the Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka said: From the decision to move from Vogel on Monday. “We just felt organizationally, at the highest level, that it was time for a new voice. … It doesn’t mean anything against the incredible achievements of Frank Vogel. He was a great coach here, and I will continue to be a great coach elsewhere.

Bilinka added: “The Lakers’ season has been a disappointment on every level. In the face of disappointment, our fans expect more, and that’s from every aspect. 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 they are executed. Death sentence in court.”

In truth, the Lakers weren’t committed to Vogel even when they hired him. They had initially planned to hire Ty Lue, but when they offered him a three-year deal and demanded control of his coaching staff, he declined the offer and the Lakers switched to Vogel. He agreed to the shorter contract and paid for it to all parties involved. However, even after Vogel won a championship, he still needed to wait until after the 2020-21 season to get a contract extension. This extension reportedly only added one year to his deal, contracting him for a total of only four despite Lue getting a five-year deal from clippers Before training them for a match.

Vogel’s strength as a coach has always been his defensive acumen. The Lakers won the 2020 championship based on their defense, and last season they finished top in the league despite both injuries. LeBron James And Anthony Davis. Not even Vogel has been able to salvage the Lakers’ roster this season, as they have fallen to 21st in defense. A pair who were held back by Vogel’s often bewildering rotation decisions and the Lakers decided to move on from their beleaguered coach.

Vogel should now become one of the most followed trainers on the market. In three NBA stopovers, he won a championship, reached the Conference Finals three times and won less than 53 percent of his regular season games. If he fails to get another job as head coach in the off-season, he can either take a year off (as he did after being fired before Orlando Magic in 2018) or pursuing a training assistant position. Vogel was a rumored candidate for Lue’s staff had Lue been hired by the Lakers in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Lakers will now be looking for their sixth full-time coach since Phil Jackson’s retirement in 2011. None of the others have been as successful as Vogel. Traditionally, teams hardly release coaches soon after a tournament. But the Lakers are not a traditional organization. They claim excellence year after year. They made it clear that any coach who could not adhere to this standard would be unemployed. Now, they’ve gone from the only coach other than Jackson to lead them to the championship in the past three decades.