Vogel could be a hugely overrated head coach.
The Suns lost to the Kings by 15 points on the road and finished 14th in the West with a 14-14 record。The Suns, who make up the Big Three, are ranked 10th in the West, and their results are inevitably disappointing.
Of course, Beal, Durant, and Booker have all suffered from injuries to varying degrees this season and have missed many games. However, Vogel, who had this good hand, failed to maximize the Suns' ability, and his use of personnel and tactics on the floor disappointed fans.
Why is Vogel an overrated manager?
Back in 2020, the Lakers defeated the Heat in the rematch to win the championship. Vogel is widely praised by fans as a head coach. Vogel himself is a head coach who makes a living defensively, and he is particularly adept at tweaking the team's defense. That year, the Lakers' defense was also the top in the league, relying on an airtight defense and James' control of the court to command the Lakers to win the championship.
In 21, the Lakers were eliminated in the first round because of Davis' injury. At the end of the season, Vogel announced his resignation.
At the time, people felt that Vogel was a scapegoat. Fans who watched the game should be clearThe Lakers' offense is highly dependent on the Zhan Mei duo, and the Lakers can only rely on the old Zhan after Davis' injury。James also experienced injuries in 21 years and was not in the best shape, so Vogel was unable to cook without rice and did not know how to adjust the Lakers' offense.
When he coached the Pacers and Magic, Vogel didn't have many bright tactics either. The Pacers have a group of defensive elites, and the team naturally defends well. The same is true for the Magic, who are one of the most athletically gifted teams in the NBA, with players generally tall and with excellent reach. With such a group of players, the defense is naturally not bad.
Back to the sun,The Suns have only been in the middle of the league defensively this season。The Suns got some defensive picks in the offseason trade, which greatly improved the team's defense.
As the head coach, Vogel is lackluster in terms of on-the-spot command, especially defensive set-up
For example, yesterday against the Kings, the opponent has a top guard Fox. Fox broke through very quickly, but Vogel didn't set up a specific defensive tactic, and he didn't give Fox a high intensity. Fox easily scored 19 points in the first half to establish the team's initiative.
watched the whole game, and the Suns' defense can be said to be unstoppable on the outside and can't make up for it on the inside. In particular, the rotation fills the Suns very poorly, and the inside line often leaks people.
In addition, the Suns are the slower team in the NBA at the moment. They have the sixth-lowest number of rounds in the league, and we can understand it this way - the Suns rank in the league in defensive efficiency because they play slower games, and if the Suns play a fast pace, they will only concede points faster.
The Suns' current situation is that the offense is stronger than the defense, and the offensive resources are far more than the defensive resources. With such a group of offensive players who can play, Vogel shouldn't have misconditioned the offense.
After such a long season, Suns fans found that the team's offense was almost unchanged from last season, and it turned into Durant and Booker fighting each other again.
There is no doubt about the individual strength of these two stars, but can this long-term and inefficient individual singles beat their opponents?
The Suns are averaging 26 assists per game this season, which ranks 14th in the league. In contrast, the team has a higher frequency of turnovers, with the team averaging the sixth-highest turnovers per game in the league。Due to the lack of playmakers, the Suns' offense mostly ended in singles. The more frequent the singles, the more inefficient the attack, and the higher the probability of mistakes.
As a head coach who has coached multiple teams, Vogel isn't just obsessed with defense. He doesn't seem to have a good idea on the offensive end, and can only watch the two stars play alone.
Since it is a singles, at least the space should be opened to provide a good environment. At some point, Vogel will even let the role player break through the ball, or put the role player on the side of Durant. This completely hampers Durant's singles space, which was especially evident in the loss to the Kings.
The Suns have a good group of off-ball shooters, and Vogel could emulate the likes of the Warriors, Spurs, Nuggets, and more. Off-ball shooter runs create containment for ball carriers, but similar tactics have been rare this season.
Three years ago, the essence of the Lakers' championship was Zhan Mei's outstanding strength and unsolvable dominance. At that time, the team not only had James, but also Rondo's on-court brains. When a team gathers these two players, the role of head coach is almost dispensable.
Vogel is a qualified manager, but definitely not a top-class manager. There are huge loopholes in his on-the-spot command and other aspects.
At the moment, the Suns don't have good defensive players. Vogel was unable to play to his best strengths, combined with a monotonous offensive strategy. The Suns haven't made particularly significant progress on both ends of the floor this season. If this continues, will it be difficult for the Suns to even make the playoffs?
Fans, what do you think about this?