The Los Angeles Lakers have been one of the best defensive team in the NBA so far and two big reasons for that have been head coach Frank Vogel and Avery Bradley.
Vogel has revamped the team’s schemes and has everyone bought in completely while Bradley quickly turned into the player who sets the tone for them on that end of the floor.
Vogel has silenced a lot of doubters with how the Lakers have started the 2019-20 NBA season and has garnered nothing but praise from his team. LeBron James has been nothing but complimentary of him and Rajon Rondo also spoke highly of the way he has brought the Lakers together.
Something that has helped Vogel’s success so far has been his ability to teach. It is something that Rondo noted as well and Bradley went even further, saying that he has never had a head coach teach him the way he has, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic:
“I’ve never had a coach teach (like this) and feel comfortable enough to teach guys stuff they can improve on the defensive end. Like (Lakers center) Dwight (Howard at a recent practice), he’s showing how he can help our team by not fouling as much on certain plays. And he’s been doing that for everybody. Like even myself, I had been struggling a lot in the preseason, had a lot of fouls. But (now) I’m just trying to be efficient. It’s about a way you can help your team. I feel like it’s selfish when you’re fouling, just making plays that – going for steals every single possession was putting me out of position and putting my teammates in bad situations to commit fouls or for the team to score.”
It says a lot about Vogel that he has been able to garner this level of praise from his veteran players. It can often be difficult to get older players to buy in as they have seen so much and won’t respect head coaches who aren’t up to par. Vogel is obviously up to caliber and it has shown in the team’s play.
Vogel has been able to not just get his team to buy in, but is also finding small ways for all of his players to improve. Instead of allowing his team to get complacent, he is getting each of them to grow. The job of a head coach is to get the best out of their team and Vogel is clearly doing that with these Lakers.