The Los Angeles Lakers season has officially come to the end, and head coach Frank Vogel is out the door. Following the team’s final game, a report from ESPN claimed that Vogel has coached his last game with organization and was set to be notified Monday morning. And that’s exactly what happened.
As the Lakers begin their coaching search, Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan may be a replacement option for Vogel in Los Angeles.
The Lakers season was a constant downward spiral that featured injuries, tantrums and more losses than anybody predicted. The team opened the year as title favorites and ended the year outside of the top 10 in Western Conference — 17 games under .500! While Anthony Davis missed much of the season with various injuries, the team had LeBron James and Russell Westbrook — a combination that should’ve been good for at least 40 wins.
Instead, the two were a combined -304 when on the court. Yikes.
The Lakers are set to have an interesting offseason ahead of them. They are likely stuck with Westbrook, who is set to earn $47,063,478 next season. And now they’re going to have a significant change at the top.
The Lakers have dismissed coach Frank Vogel, sources tell @ramonashelburne and me.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 11, 2022
Could the Lakers look to steal Bulls head coach Billy Donovan?
There also isn’t a guarantee for Davis to be on the court more than he is on the sidelines. His history says that he will not be available for a good portion of the regular season.
Whoever takes on this team needs to be able to balance Westbrook (unless he’s traded) and LeBron and pivot without Davis. While Donovan has shown reluctance throughout his coaching career to change his philosophies, he has been able to get the best out of Westbrook in the past.
Westbrook won his MVP award with Donovan as his coach. That year was his best assist to turnover ratio in the last 10 seasons. Donovan also was able to adapt to playing without Durant twice and still make the playoffs.
The current combination that the Bulls have is similar to what the Lakers have. Both have two ball dominant guards and score-first bigs. Donovan has found a way to center the offense around the scoring guards while still finding touches for Nikola Vucevic. His guards are younger and may be more dynamic at this stage of their careers, but the template he’s created will work for the current Lakers roster.
Donovan’s prior success with Westbrook, and in the Western Conference in general, makes him a possible candidate for LA. But Donovan wanting to leave a solid situation for a current circus? That’s a different story. Overall, it would make sense for LA to target Donovan once the Bulls enter the offseason … and it’s obvious they definitely would if Chicago decided to part ways with him after the team’s late-season collapse.