The Los Angeles Lakers wasted no time in firing Frank Vogel after the 2021-22 regular season as the team quickly began its search for a new head coach. One of the first names connected to the Lakers was Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, who now seems much more likely for the job nearly a month later.
Snyder’s Jazz were eliminated in the first round of the NBA Playoffs and with the team being over the luxury tax and falling short with this core yet again, it is probably time for Danny Ainge to blow it up in his first full offseason with the team. A blow-up would likely include a new head coach for the Jazz.
There is a contingent of Lakers fans who are excited about the idea of Quin Snyder becoming the next head coach of the Lakers. The seeds are certainly there for Snyder to be the coach as he is a bigger name that the team can sell to the fanbase. Snyder also was an assistant on the Lakers staff during the 2011-12 season, so the ties are there.
The grass is not always greener on the other side, though, and it is hard to understand the excitement for Snyder to come to Los Angeles if he is let go by the Jazz.
In reality, Quin Snyder is no better for the Lakers than Frank Vogel.
For the record, I was not a fan of the Lakers firing Frank Vogel as most of the issues with the team had nothing to do with Vogel. Vogel just became the fall guy for the team despite coaching them to the NBA Championship less than two years ago.
Yes, the players deserve the most credit for that title run, but let’s not play revisionist history. Vogel mastered the rotation and matchups in that playoff run to help his team win the title. His rotations may have been a headache this season but he did not have the best players to utilize.
Calling Snyder an improvement over Vogel is laughable. Snyder has done nothing in his coaching career to get that distinction and quite frankly, fans should be hoping that the team does its homework and hires a quality assistant that is ready for a job. Hiring a former head coach just because he has head coaching experience is pointless.
Snyder is coming off of a series (and an entire stint with the Jazz, for that matter) where his defense was exploited despite having the best defensive big man in the league. Yes, Rudy Gobert does create matchup problems for his team because other teams can go small and pull him from the basket and get open threes.
However, this has been the same strategy that teams have been utilizing against the Jazz for several years now and Utah still had no answers for it this year. How? The roster may not have been fully suited for it but Snyder did nothing to fix this issue as a coach.
Utah has consistently been one of the best regular-season teams in the league but it is the postseason record that should be concerning. Snyder has virtually no success in the NBA Playoffs as a head coach and that is not merely an accident.
In eight years with the Jazz Snyder has a career 21-30 playoff record. His playoff runs have ended as followed:
- Second-round loss (Swept, won round one in seven games)
- Second-round loss (Lost 4-1)
- First-round loss (Lost 4-1)
- First-round loss (Lost in seven, blew a 3-1 lead)
- Second-round loss (Blew a 2-0 lead with Kawhi Leonard missing Game 5 and 6)
- First-round loss (Lost in six to Dallas with Luka Doncic missing Games 1-3)
He has had some of the most talented regular-season teams in the league in this stint and has never even been able to make it out of the second round. Sure, they ran into the Golden State Warriors in his first trip to the playoffs, but every other year has been full of disappointment.
Why would the Los Angeles Lakers want to hire Snyder with this track record? If we are going to be hyper-critical of Vogel for things that are not even his fault then we should do the same for Snyder, especially with him being the common denominator.