The Los Angeles Lakers are in the market for a new head coach, but the way they treated their last head coach, Frank Vogel, may have turned off a potential candidate.
According to the Los Angeles Times’ Broderick Turner, Utah Jazz head coach Quin Snyder has become less interested in the Lakers’ job because of how the team handled Vogel’s firing.
Shortly after the Lakers’ overtime win against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Lakers intended to fire Vogel on Monday.
Frank Vogel has coached his final game for the Lakers, a decision that’s expected to be shared with him as soon as Monday, sources tell ESPN. Lakers’ search expected to be lengthy and expansive with no clear initial frontrunner.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 11, 2022
“Snyder, who is known for having very good offensive sets and a solid defensive foundation, has led the Jazz to the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season,” Turner wrote. “He was an assistant with the Lakers while on the staff of coach Mike Brown in 2011-2012. Not only is Snyder under contract with the Jazz for at least one more season, people not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said he has become less interested in the Lakers’ job because of how the Vogel firing was handled.”
During his eight seasons in Utah, Snyder has compiled a career record of 372-264. However, Snyder’s playoff success is limited, as Utah is just 19-26 in the postseason with him at the helm.
Despite the playoff struggles, there’s no doubt that Snyder would be an impressive hire for Los Angeles, as he’s shown he can build a perennial playoff team in Utah.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, they may need to convince Snyder that this is an attractive job after how they handled Vogel’s exit. Los Angeles moved on from Vogel after just three seasons.
Vogel did win an NBA title with the Lakers in the 2019-20 season, but the team had a first-round exit in the playoffs last year and failed to make the play-in tournament in the Western Conference in the 2021-22 season.
Snyder and the Jazz have the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference in this year’s playoffs, and it will be interesting to see if Utah’s playoff performance helps sway his decision for where he will coach in the 2022-23 season.
