The Los Angeles Lakers season is all but over and with that in mind, the Lakers rumors are already flowing like it is the offseason. It has seemed inevitable for months that the Lakers were going to fire Frank Vogel after the season and now we are starting to hear speculation on who might be replacing Vogel as the head coach of the Lakers.
Early Lakers rumors indicated that Quin Snyder was on the Lakers’ wish list, although he would have to be let go by the Utah Jazz for the Lakers to be able to hire him. Another active head coach has been tied to LA as well, with Doc Rivers being a potential candidate to replace Vogel.
According to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, sources claim that the Lakers are indeed expected to part ways with Vogel after the season. In Fischer’s report, he names the current Philadelphia 76ers coach as a candidate to replace Vogel with growing speculation that the 76ers may look to replace him with Mike D’Antoni, who coached Harden in Houston.
These Doc Rivers Lakers rumors would be a disaster.
While some fans might be open to the idea of Rivers coaching the Lakers because he has won a championship in the past and knows how to handle superstars, it has become painstakingly clear in recent years that he is not the man you hire to win a championship.
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If Rivers proves us all wrong and wins a title this season then he is likely going to stay in Philly unless he requests out. If Rivers is the head coach of the Lakers next season then that means he fell short in the playoffs yet again and found another new team.
It is typically not a good sign when a head coach is rumored to get let go from his current team when that current team is one of the favorites to win the NBA Championship. Rivers has historically been pretty awful as a head coach in the playoffs and that is the last thing that the Lakers need next season.
Rivers has a career 98-94 record in the postseason, which is heavily carried from his days with the Boston Celtics. Since moving on from the Celtics, Rivers has a 34-37 record despite all of the talent that he had both with the Los Angeles Clippers and Philadelphia 76ers.
As the head coach of the Clippers, Rivers was head coach for two horrible blown leads; the first a fourth-quarter collapse against the Houston Rockets in 2015 and the second a 3-1 blown series lead against the Denver Nuggets in the 2020 bubble.
His first year with the 76ers didn’t go as planned as they lost to a Hawks team they absolutely should have beaten who is now the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference this season. And based on the speculation that he might be leaving Philly after this season, perhaps we should be expecting another ugly playoff departure this year.
Why would the Los Angeles Lakers want that?