Why the Los Angeles Lakers should still be considered title favorites

Frank Vogel’s brilliance

A lot has been written about Frank Vogel’s ability to create an excellent defensive system, all of which is true. Frank Vogel is the best defensive coach in the league, but we’re not here to parrot the same old ideas.

Frank Vogel is also brilliant because of the way he toggles players in and out of the lineup. He’s one of the few head coaches in the association who can keep every player on the roster engaged and ready to go, even if they aren’t playing the type of minutes they think they should be.

Andre Drummond has a lot to play for this postseason. His performance in the postseason could be the difference between a four-year, $80 million contract and a two-year, $20 million contract. That type of money can weigh on a coach; it can push him into giving a player time on the court he doesn’t deserve, time that doesn’t benefit the team.

Here’s the thing, though: Frank Vogel showed last postseason he doesn’t care about giving a player time that hurts the team. Look at Dion Waiters again. Last postseason he was playing for his NBA life, and Frank Vogel only gave him five games (7.6 MPG) to prove himself to the rest of the association. Now, he’s out of the league. Vogel also famously sat JaVale McGee and Dwight Howard, last postseason against the smaller Houston Rockets for nearly the entire series.

It sounds simple for a coach to play the best players in each series, but it rarely happens. Take Doc Rivers, the Los Angeles Clippers head coach last season. He’s one of the most respected coaches in the league, and he has a chip safely tucked away in his back pocket.

Yet he still doggedly played Montrezl Harrell throughout the Clippers’ second-round defeat to the Denver Nuggets, even though Harrell was clearly outmatched. Harrell finished that series with a -5.3 +/- rating, while Ivica Zubac, the Clippers’ other center, ended things with a +4.6 rating.

Los Angeles Lakers fans can rest easy knowing that Vogel will not play the undersized Montrezl Harrell against a squad like the Utah Jazz with Rudy Gobert handling the middle. Nor will Harrell see significant minutes against the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokić, the MVP frontrunner, simply because Harrell was a central cog in the rotation throughout the season.

Similarly, Frank Vogel will not play Dennis Schroder 34 minutes per game if one of the elite western conference point guards like Chris Paul or Damian Lillard is consistently burning him.

Frank Vogel will find the best matchups for the Lakers throughout each series, regardless of a player’s ego or the effect it could have on his wallet.