Los Angeles Lakers: Three surprises from the first five games

2. Frank Vogel’s coaching and willingness to make adjustments

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but something that has been refreshing to see is the coaching of Frank Vogel and his ragtag staff of assistants. So far the defense of this team has been great and I think that is due, in large part, to Vogel getting this team to buy-in. The team overall has been playing aggressive on that end of the floor, closing out on shooters, and funneling opposing players into the paint where Howard, Davis, and McGee lie waiting.

However, the most important takeaway from these past five games has been Vogel’s ability to make adjustments, both in-game and as the season goes on.

A perfect example is opening night against the Clippers. He saw that going to post-ups for Anthony Davis was not a viable solution long-term, and the following game, had James run a lot more pick and roll with Davis to get him some easy buckets.

But that doesn’t mean that just because it didn’t work one game, it won’t work the next, as the team’s victory against the Dallas Mavericks showed. Late into the 4th quarter and into overtime, the team returned to the Anthony Davis post-up, as LeBron manufactured the switch to get a smaller player onto Davis, and as Shaquille O’Neal used to say, it was BBQ chicken for Davis.

Another example would be the rotations. Vogel has been smart to almost always keep one of Davis or James on the floor, or ‘steal’ some minutes with both of them on the bench, which is obviously not ideal, but the reasoning behind it is sound. He has also been smart about keeping fresh legs on the floor, which helps the team stay aggressive on the defensive end.

After having, for all intents and purposes, a rookie head coach in Luke Walton, it’s refreshing to have a veteran level coach who is willing and able to fit his scheme to the players and not force the players to fit the scheme.