NBA: First-Year Coach Embraces Lakers Redemption Challenge, Confident About Team Chances

The man in the hot seat for the Los Angeles Lakers this 2019-20 NBA season will be Frank Vogel. The first-year head coach is aware that he has his work cut out for him as he tries to map out a way to lead the purple and gold back to the postseason wars. Given his manpower compliment, he is given lesser room to fail.

The last time the Lakers made the playoffs was way back in 2013 with Kobe Bryant leading the charge. When injuries started to hound the Black Mamba, the Lakers simply struggled as they tried to find a new player to stand out.

The scenario is obviously different this time around. The Lakers have LeBron James and Anthony Davis, easily two of the top stars the NBA has to date. Add some tested cagers such as Danny Green, Rajon Rondo, Quin Cook, and Dwight Howard, Los Angeles undoubtedly has one of the deeper benches in the Western Conference. It all now depends if Vogel can find the right mix and maximize the skills of each player.

The first thing that Vogel needs to do is to make sure he can co-exist with James. The three-time NBA champion has been notorious for not getting along with head coaches. But as far as the 46-year-old is concerned, he said in an interview with NBA.com that he will cross that bridge when he gets there.

"I'm not going to look at how it's been with his past coaches. That really doesn't concern me. I want to shape my own opinion of him as a person and one of the greatest ever. I'm going to take my approach and work together with him to hopefully do something special," Vogel said.

As far as Davis, the big question is what position he will play. The 26-year-old made it known that he prefers to play the power forward spot. Vogel said that Davis is effective playing both spots. Hence, The Brow could be playing the middle during some regular season games with the premise or preserving him for the NBA playoffs.

"Does that mean he's never going to do it in the regular season? No, of course he's going to play some center in the regular season. But we want to make sure we keep the end goal in sight and getting him to April, for that playoff run, the right way," Vogel explained.

The play of Davis may also depend on how Howard performs. Most know that the reason behind the addition of the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year is to fill in the center position so that Davis can play the four. In a previous post, Kobe Bryant said that he feels Howard will fit in perfectly. That, of course, remains to be seen.