How it was handled doesn't necessarily have to refer to the Woj tweet. Could be that Snyder doesn't like seeing Frank being the scapegoat for the dumpster fire that is our front office. The paper work was drawn up for this firing in January, it just got submitted to HR on Monday, so it could refer to our treatment and lack of support (or tools for success) for Frank since that point. If any coach is OK with how we've handled our coaching situation since last offseason, I will almost wonder if something is wrong with them and wonder why they're coming here. That's kind of what is shocking to me with Rob coming from the player services side of the industry. That entire job is about player optics. How we are never ahead of anything is mind blowing. We don't avoid any landmine, instead we get nose to nose with it.
I think you're right. It was extremely troubling reading through the exit interviews and HALF the players mention Kurt. But why did Rob let the rooster in the hen house? Rob has to see what's going on here. He had to fight off other agents making runs at his players his entire tenure as an agent. How can he not sniff out the power play? Jeanie will not fire the Rambii ever. She'll fire Rob if she has to. He seemingly has lost way too much control of his job and I put a lot of that on him. Before I can give him any sympathy for that I would need to know that he went to Jeanie and told her that he needs to be able to do his job without Kurt's interference. If that happened and she told him to suck it up, etc. then that's another story. I do wonder if that's the case or if Jim soured that option. She might be afraid they'll become Jim if they get too much power or Jim will cozy up to them and rise against her that way.
With Vogel gone, Rob is the next available scapegoat for Jeanie. If he fails to deliver this offseason (whether thats trading Westbrick or building a competent roster WITH him), Rambis will probably take over.
again, maybe we should wish for it because at least then rambis can be blamed when things go wrong. in his current "role", he's teflon.
Well that’s the thing, I don’t think anyone in the organization has tried to scapegoat Frank. Rob pretty much pointed the finger at himself and the roster construction more than Frank. If the very act of firing Frank is considered scapegoating, wouldn’t that apply to almost any situation with a coaching change? Like was Quinn Snyder only ever going to consider coaching vacancies that opened up after the prior coach’s contract expired, not situations where the prior coach got fired? In terms of Frank not being supported, I don’t know if I agree with that. Yes he was given an ill-fitted roster, but that was primarily due to the Westbrook trade. Sometimes teams take a gamble on a trade and it fails (miserably in this case). I don’t think that’s a sign that the organization was sabotaging the coach. On the contrary, we brought in his security blanket in Bradley and reportedly the front office encouraged him to bench Westbrook if he wanted to. So aside from the timing of Woj’s tweet that started all this “unprofessional” narrative, what else could we have done at this juncture to avoid bad optics? Wait a few more weeks and keep Frank in limbo while we pretend to ruminate on the decision? Not fire Frank at all?
simple: don't tell woj before you told frank officially. if someone else did it, fire them and publicly explain it was because they leaked internal information against company policy. as for sabotage, they didn't intentionally do that. but by constructing a roster that couldn't defend and giving a weak extension after the title, they knowingly put the coach in a very difficult position. finally, vogel was screwed either way with westbrook. if he benches him, he gets blasted for killing morale/losing the team, etc. if he doesn't, he gets killed for playing suboptimal lineups, etc. he was handed pickles and asked to make a chocolate cake. are there better bakers? sure. do any of them use pickles? no. in fact, every other recent baker handed this same jar of pickles has also been fired. it's not because they forgot how to bake. VERY CURIOUS to see if any coach rushes to take the job if westbrook is still going to be here. guessing nobody except retreads desperate to get back in the game.
I agree with the Woj thing, but my point is that is relatively minor and I don’t think any coaching candidates are actually turned off primarily due to that. If restaurant management supplies their head baker with pickles as a primary ingredient, it is not entirely the fault of the baker when he makes a terrible cake. But when the baker also decides to skimp out on sugar, bafflingly throws some asparagus in there, he’s not entirely blameless either. And regardless, it’s a moot point. Once the baker sends out pickle cakes and everyone tastes how terrible it is, nobody’s going to eat that baker’s cakes again. You’ve got to move on and find a new baker, learn from your mistakes and make sure you give your new baker better ingredients. And to your point, I agree that other baker’s are going to be hesitant to come when they know the stock room still has boxes of pickles. Normally you might want to collaborate with your new coach on a Westbrook trade to try to get pieces that will work well with the new coaches systems. But in this case, I don’t think any coach is going to agree to terms with us if there is even the potential that they may be in a situation where they have to try to make Westbrook work. I do think you have to trade Westbrook first for the best package you can find and hope the return is enough to entice the coach you want.
I wonder if we plan on buying a couple of 2nd rd picks before the draft. I think the end of the season games showed that Talen, Stan, Austin and Gabriel are a lot better than " Barely above G-League caliber ". The Lakers scouting department is excellent IMO, I think they could find a couple of rough gems in this upcoming draft. Maybe another steal.
At the very least, I think we will identify guys likes Austin who would be willing to pass on getting drafted in the second round to sign with us.
That would work too, but it being the Lakers, the League will probably come up with some rule to discourage that type of thing from continuing.
I think Kurt just filled the power vacuum that Magic left. Rob wasn’t promoted to team president, Kurt just snuck in, so I blame Magic haha. Though I’m not genuinely sure who is worse. As far as Joey and Jesse, Rob mentioned them by name for like the first time ever yesterday. He said he, Kurt, Joey and Jesse would be making the roster decisions. So I take that as a good sign, I think they’re working their way up as they should.
The league should discourage that. It's shady and unfair to lower markets. The draft was built exactly to avoid that
i thought that too, but i'm not sure how they do it. guarantee some money for 2nd rounders? i mean, a team could have just taken reaves and had his rights if they wanted to. i think that's what it would take for the league to do something. like, det drafts reaves, and he refuses to report and demands a trade for a future protected 2nd to the lakers. but nobody forced anyone's hand this time. to me, this means no team wanted reaves enough to deal with the potential hassle/annoy his agent. in other words, i don't think this is going to happen with a top prospect, and thus it doesn't warrant action. finally: are we sure that lower markets are hurt by this? maybe inferior teams are hurt by it a little, though. in this case, however, det was drafting at 42--this wasn't high lotto draft spot (like 30-35). but i return to my point--det called reaves's agent and asked if they should draft him, offering him a 2-way. the lakers had offered a 2-way should he go undrafted, so they passed. would the rule be that people can't reach out to agents with contingent offers like that? how do you police it? they already can't police early FA negotiations among the very top players in the nba.
There's comments that the team is willing to make in front of the camera and comments they are willing to make as a "source." Vogel was left on an island, at best. Luke even received more public support from Jeanie than Vogel received from anyone behind a desk this season. I get Luke bled P&G, but Frank got us a 'ship which speaks to a larger inclusive issue. Abeer touched on a lot of the ways that Vogel was setup to fail and put in position to be the sacrificial lamb if things went south. "Extension", a roster that goes against everything Frank believes in, having to answer to Rambis and implement his advice, seeing your franchise player drool over Lue in season while crickets chirp with you. Coaches always take the first bullet, it's how the league works. It's easier to fire a coach than move a contract. BUT I don't think any coach worth their salt liked seeing their brother treated like s*** since the game to game status was labeled on a championship coach. It's as much a brother hood with the coaches as it is with the players. Frank was not supported. That's not up for debate. Extension. Rambis. No defense. No size. Russ. Watering down his assistants. AB was an olive branch, I guess. He played him more than he should have but he's one of the few guys he knew what to expect from and could predict his play consistently night to night. Yes, the team gave Vogel permission to bench Russ but that would have only made things worse. He already lost the locker room from reports. Vogel publicly supported Russ throughout while Russ was throwing grenades. I imagine Vogel’s follow up to that option was... Vogel: well, if that doesn't work and he makes it worse, can we send him home? Rob: though shalt not ostracize thou brethren! Vogel: OK then. We'll keep him in the starting 5. Unprofessional started with the extension. Grew louder with the coaching game to game threat. Woj's leak was the nail in the coffin. Solution is to get ahead of it. On record, tell Frank before ESPN does. Hold rogue front office leaks accountable. Tell Frank before the final game or tell Woj to hold off until the next day. They also let Woj steal the headline of one of the biggest moments/nights that Reaves will have in his entire career. Another bad look.
Maybe they simply decided that they didn't want Frank anymore back in December, but Jeanie said no, he will finish out the season. Frank knew it was a wrap and just did whatever he wanted, and the players followed suit. Every one hoped Lebron and AD would somehow save the day but that didn't happen. Move on to the next coach and whatever roster moves best suits the team. Hopefully AD and Lebron will play like top 5 players next season. I don't think Frank or Russ prevented that from happening, the injuries did.
