NBA: Midterm reports for first-year head coaches
By John Nassif
Taking a closer look at how first-year head coaches have performed through the first half of the 2019-20 NBA season. We hand out report cards
Can you believe that we’re already approaching the halfway point of this NBA season? Similar to college, it’s time to give a report card on coaches in their first year with franchises on their Semester 1 performance.
Frank Vogel, Monty Williams, Luke Walton, John Beilein, and Taylor Jenkins started this season as the new coach of their respective teams. Mike Miller, Ryan Saunders, and Jim Boylen became head coaches due to in-season firings, so we’ll throw them in the mix too.
They each have shown promise and areas to develop. Which of these coaches is establishing themselves as career head coaches and which of them are creating more fires as they try to put out old ones?
Frank Vogel, Los Angeles Lakers
This Los Angeles Lakers supporting cast left question marks and things to be desired after its construction over the offseason. That being said, any roster featuring LeBron James and Anthony Davis will (and should) have championship expectations.
Vogel has coached this team to the first seed in the Western Conference and his most impressive feat has been gaining the commitment of the entire team on the defensive end. My only rationale for not grading him higher is that no Laker coach will be in the “A-range” until they win a title first.
Until then, Frank Vogel has checked every box of a good coach just short of that coveted NBA championship.
Good Stat: Defense – 3rd in Opponent Points per Game and 2nd in Defensive Efficiency
Bad Stat: Free Throw Shooting – 28th in the league at just 74 percent