Los Angeles Lakers: 3 reasons why firing Frank Vogel is a huge mistake

3. The Los Angeles Lakers are already caving into LeBron James

Perhaps the biggest reason why Frank Vogel was likely fired was pressure from LeBron James. It is clear that LeBron has a big say on what the Lakers do as he was the one petitioning for the team to trade for Russell Westbrook in the summer. This is not the first time that LeBron has outed a head coach and he probably was a big reason why Vogel ended up being fired.

While it is common for a superstar, especially one of his caliber, to have some pull, this is a bad thing for the Lakers. LeBron is entering the latter stages of his career and the team really cannot afford to bow down and do whatever he wants.

LeBron is on an expiring contract next season and he is absolutely going to leverage that into trying to get what he wants. That could be trading a future asset to flip one bad player in Russell Westbrook for another bad player in John Wall. Why does LeBron care about the 2027 pick? He won’t be on the team by then anyway.

We have seen how poorly LeBron has left rosters behind in the past and this is the first step toward the Lakers following that same path. Think things are bad now? Just wait until LeBron pressures the team to make more bad moves and they have even fewer assets to build in the future after LeBron and Anthony Davis bounce.

So when the Los Angeles Lakers make other moves this offseason, just be sure to remember who is the one pulling Rob Pelinka’s strings.