The Los Angeles Lakers capped off their busy day by announcing that they have signed head coach Frank Vogel to a contract extension.
Vogel was set to enter the final year of the three-year contract he signed with the Lakers in 2019 but now will be sticking around longer. The terms of the deal were not released, however, so it is currently unclear how many years the extension is for.
Regardless though, Vogel will be back in 2021-22 with basically a brand new roster to work with after the Lakers’ busy summer. Their biggest move was acquiring Russell Westbrook, and after that came a number of veteran free agents including Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Trevor Ariza, Kent Bazemore, Wayne Ellington, Malik Monk and Kendrick Nunn.
L.A. will also be retaining LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Talen Horton-Tucker and Marc Gasol from last year’s roster, giving the current team a total of 12 players with three spots left to be filled.
While it will be a difficult task for Vogel to put a brand new group together and immediately have them in championship contention, he certainly has the adequate talent and experience to work with. Additionally, he has already shown he can do it once when he left the Lakers to the franchise’s 17th championship less than a year ago.
In two seasons with the Lakers, Vogel has amassed a 94-49 regular season record to go along with an 18-9 record in the postseason. Despite L.A. being decimated by injuries in the 2020-21 season, he still led the No. 1 rated defense in the league, proving to be arguably the best defensive-minded coach in basketball.
At the conclusion of this past season, Vogel and the Lakers expressed mutual interest in getting an extension done, and while it took a bit longer than expected, it is now officially a done deal.
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