Los Angeles Lakers: Frank Vogel, Jason Kidd provide hope for the future

The Los Angeles Lakers just hired Frank Vogel and Jason Kidd, and (somehow) there’s now optimism for the 2019-2020 NBA season.

The Los Angeles Lakers have turned into a primetime television show with the drama surrounding them. In Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister went from being the smartest man in the seven kingdoms to suddenly morphing into a complete moron. Over the last couple of seasons, every idea he’s come up with has blown up in his face and led to catastrophe for Daenerys Targaryen and her army.

Fans have been wondering how a man could go from having an Einstein-like IQ when it comes to politics and playing the game of thrones to a bumbling idiot incapable of forming simple strategic moves.

There’s a popular answer running through online threads as to why Tyrion’s recently become a moron. Here’s the notion: Tyrion Lannister has been blundering all of his moves on purpose. He’s not actually getting outsmarted by his sister Cersei, he’s been an inside man secretly helping his older sister thwart her opponent in order to help secure the iron throne for his family.

As the Lakers season ran into spring and LA’s chances of making the playoffs melted away like the winter snow across America, I also formed a theory about why the Lakers front office had constructed such a mismatched roster.

Here was my concept: Jeanie Buss, Magic Johnson, and Rob Pelinka looked at the NBA landscape and saw that no matter what players they surrounded LeBron James, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Lonzo Ball with during the 2018-2019 season, the Lakers had no chance of beating the Rockets and the Warriors in the playoffs.

Therefore, they made a business decision. They decided to sign four “interesting” players in Rajon Rondo, JaVale McGee, Lance Stephenson and Michael Beasley; forming “Team Meme.”

The Lakers brass picked up those four players because they believed that they would get themselves into hilarious in-game situations and then crazy hijinks would follow. Anytime “Team Meme” did something outrageous it would make the news cycle, thus helping to promote the Purple and Gold, thus helping the organization make more money.

The idea makes sense. The Lakers had the highest average ticket price last season and they also played in the most nationally televised games during the 2018-2019 regular season. If you can’t win the title, why not make it to the playoffs with LeBron in tow and make as much money as possible.

Things didn’t go according to plan, though. The members of “Team Meme” were perfect citizens during the season and something completely unexpected happened: LeBron suffered the worst injury of his career and the Lakers didn’t make the postseason.

I thought that Jeanie, Magic, and Rob were pretending to be unqualified in the same way many Game of Thrones fans believe Tyrion is purposely sabotaging “The Dragon Queen.” Unfortunately, for Game of Thrones fans Tyrion is almost certainly not corrupting Daenerys on purpose, he really has become a moron.

Likewise, for Lakers fans, none of the moves made by the front office were done by three executives who were secretly shrewd businessman, they were also done by people who don’t know what they’re doing.

It’s easy to blame Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka for the debacles of last season, but the person who’s really responsible for the Lakers problems is Jeanie Buss.

More from Lake Show Life

In China, there’s a famous expression: Fu Bu Guo San Dai. That expression means that if two parents who come from nothing, work hard and provide a nice life for their children, then it’s likely that their kids will go to college and then they have a chance to become rich.

If those children (the 2nd generation) become rich and prosperous, then their kids (the 3rd generation) will grow up with a privileged life and for many of them, they won’t understand that it’s very important to study well in school and work hard. That 3rd generation has a very good chance of leading an unsuccessful life. In fact, often times they lose their inheritances as well through stupid and uneducated business decisions.

This Chinese expression explains the Buss family incredibly well. Jerry Buss was raised by his mom, Jessie, who divorced his father when Jerry was young. Jerry’s father was a statistics professor at Berkley and his mom was also a hard working woman. Jerry Buss’s parent’s toiled to provide him with the chance at a great life.

Jerry Buss (the 2nd generation) didn’t waste his parent’s efforts. He got a Ph.D. in chemistry from USC. Then he got into real estate investing and eventually he bought the Lakers and turned them into the best run organization in sports.

Regrettably, it appears that his children fit the 3rd generation Chinese stereotype to a tee. Jim Buss took over the Lakers after his father died and he famously ran the Purple and Gold into the ground by making awful deals to over-the-hill players (Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng).

Then Jeanie Buss ousted her brother and she foolishly chose to hire people she already knew, instead of the most qualified candidates to help her run the Lakers. Here’s a list.

Magic Johnson (the former Lakers player)
Rob Pelinka (Kobe Bryant’s former agent)
Luke Walton (the former Lakers player)
Brian Shaw (the former Lakers player)
Mark Madson (the former Lakers player)
Kurt Rambis (the former Lakers player and coach)
Kurt Rambis’s wife (the former Lakers player’s spouse)

So far, Jeanie Buss has been just as bad as her brother at managing the Lakers.

Jeanie Buss appears to be a smart, independent, and sincere woman, but all of her actions point to an entitled 3rd generation woman who is close to losing the fortune her father built.

Here’s the thing, though. In spite of Jim and Jeanie Buss’s ineptitude, there are actually many reasons for Lakers fans to feel optimistic going forward.

The Lakers dodged a bullet when Tyronn Lue decided he didn’t want to be their head coach. He was fired at the beginning of the 2018-2019 season after the Cavaliers started out 0-6 and no other team outside of the Purple and Gold has even interviewed him for a coaching position since.

Lue won a championship with a veteran team led by LeBron James, which is great, but most insiders believe that Lue did very little to help the Cavaliers win. He simply sat back and let LeBron James run the offense, while the defense for the Cavs during Tyronn’s tenure was awful.

2016-2017 Cavaliers: 109.7 defensive rating (21st in the NBA)

2017-2018 Cavaliers: 111 defensive rating (29th in the NBA)

Tyronn Lue has never shown that he can guide and teach young players like Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, and Josh Hart. He’s only displayed the ability to let LeBron work his magic and lead the Cavs to the finals.

Simply letting LeBron run the show won’t work anymore. James is too old. The Lakers need a coach who knows how to teach defensive principles and how to mold young players.

Frank Vogel is a great defensive coach.

2011-2012 Pacers: 102.1 defensive rating (10th in the NBA)

2012-2013 Pacers: 99 defensive rating (1st in the NBA)

2013-2014 Pacers: 98.9 defensive rating (1st in the NBA)

2014-2015 Pacers: 102.7 defensive rating (8th in the NBA)

2015-2016 Pacers: 102.2 defensive rating (3rd in the NBA)

Behind the Pacers strong defensive effort, Frank Vogel led them to a 250-181 record in the five-plus seasons as their head coach.

During 2011-2012, in Vogel’s first full season as the Indiana head coach, he guided a team with one in-his-prime player, Danny Granger, and several young up-and-coming players (Darren Collison, Roy Hibbert, Paul George, and George Hill) to the 2nd round of the playoffs.

That bodes well for the Lakers because they also currently have one-star player in LeBron and several young guys including Ingram, Ball, Kuzma, and Hart.

Jason Kidd is also joining the Lakers as Frank Vogel’s head assistant, which is great news for two reasons.

First, Kidd was one of the greatest point guards ever and he’ll be able to teach Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and Brandon Ingram some of the most important nuances of how to run an offense successfully.

Second, the Lakers front office claimed that they wanted Jason Kidd on the team to mentor Lonzo Ball, which means that Rob Pelinka and Jeannie Buss aren’t planning on trading Lonzo during the offseason and hopefully that means the rest of the young core is going to stay on the Lakers as well.

Here’s what the Lakers have going for them next year:

A highly motivated LeBron James who’s heard all the talk about how he’s past his prime and who also certainly read the news that some “Hollywood Guys” went to Jeannie and begged her to trade him. Expect LeBron to go nuclear next year.
Five young and talented players in Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and Josh Hart.
One young player named Brandon Ingram who started to really blossom before he went down with an injury. Next year Brandon could very well grow wings and fly off into the All-Star stratosphere.
A good young coach in Frank Vogel who’s proved he can build a great defensive system and who’s also shown he can win at a high level in the NBA.
A great assistant coach in Jason Kidd, who’s joining Vogel’s coaching staff so that he can pass on his wisdom to the young Lakers players.
Over $40 million to spend in free agency.

During the 2018-2019 season, the evil super villain known as Injuryman swept down upon the Lakers in full force using his viscous super power-injuries-to incapacitate the Lakers five best players. If the Purple and Gold manage to steer clear of Injuryman next year, they’re going to win at least 50 games.

The Lakers are the laughing stock of the NBA right now so it will be very hard for them to sign a top-tier free agent. Even if the Lakers miss out on Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, and Jimmy Butler it won’t be a huge deal. If Pelinka and Buss sign DeAndre Jordan and two or three good shooters, the Lakers are still going to be a force in the Western Conference next season.

Next. 3 Scenarios To Acquire Anthony Davis From The Pelicans. dark

If Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson leave the Warriors and Chris Paul gets injured like he does almost every year, then who knows, maybe the Lakers will come out as the Western Conference Champions next season.

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