Former championship coach joins the Mavs as a consultant
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd revealed a new addition to the coaching staff for the 2024-2025 NBA season. During his media availability on October 2, Kidd announced that Frank Vogel will be joining the staff as a consultant, bringing two-and-a-half decades of experience as both an assistant coach and head coach in the league.
Kidd is no stranger to Vogel, having worked as his assistant coach from 2019 to 2021 when Vogel helmed the Los Angeles Lakers. Kidd of course left that position to take over head coaching duties in Dallas, while Vogel stuck around in LA for an additional season. Kidd’s respect for Vogel is readily apparent. “Being able to work for Frank was something that helped me with my coaching,” said Kidd, as he joked “it took a lot of begging” to get Vogel into the fold.
My colleague Tyler Edsel here at Mavs Moneyball wrote about the acquisition in his coverage of Training Camp Day 2, but it’s worth exploring Vogel’s resume a bit more to see what he brings to a Mavericks team aiming to make another deep run.
Where It Began
Vogel got his coaching start at the age of 28 when he joined the Boston Celtics as an assistant. After three seasons, he bounced to the Philadelphia 76ers for a season-long assistant role, and then moved over to the Indiana Pacers. With the Pacers, Vogel served as an assistant from 2007-2008 through part of 2010-2011 under head coach Jim O’Brien (who he knew well from their mutual time in Boston and Philly). After O’Brien’s firing during the 2010-11 season, Vogel was named interim head coach. Despite the Pacers’ 37-45 record, Vogel helped get them to their first Playoff appearance after a four-season drought. In his five full seasons as Pacers head coach, Vogel led them to the Playoffs in four of them, going as far as the Eastern Conference Finals twice. After a much less impressive two-season tenure with the Orlando Magic, Vogel went to the Lakers. He spent three seasons in LA, leading them to the 2020 NBA Championship. After taking a year off from coaching, he most recently coached the Phoenix Suns for a single season. Just prior to getting hired by the Suns, he was at least flirting with the Mavericks, as he spent some time with the team during training camp in 2022.
Defense First
Vogel is widely known for his defensive acumen and there is little doubt this is a big reason he was brought to Dallas. According to Statmuse, in his time as a head coach, his teams featured the best defense (by defensive rating) three times; twice with the Pacers and once with the Lakers. Aside from his time with the Magic and his final year with the Lakers, his teams were always in the top 10 in defensive rating.
The Mavericks sat right in the middle of the pack in defensive rating last season, at 15 (tied for 14, and .2 away from tying for 11). They don’t have far to go to get into the top 10 all else equal, and Vogel can definitely help them get there. This is especially true if Dereck Lively makes an expected jump and the team defense we saw after the PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford trades becomes even more cohesive with a full training camp together. The Mavericks offense was already quite effective and likely to be better this year with the addition of Klay Thompson and organic improvement. If they can be in the upper echelon defensively, they are poised to give their opponents fits.
What’s Next?
I can’t see anything but positives coming out this hire. Vogel has proven to be an extremely capable defensive-minded coach. With Kidd at his side, he won the 2019-2020 NBA Championship. Current Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley and current Mavericks player Markieff Morris both played for Vogel that year as well, so synergy and trust should be easy to come by. There is little information in terms of Vogel’s contract length, but I suspect that simply keeps everyone happy – the team gets the expertise of another head coach and Vogel has an easier pivot to a head coaching vacancy should one turn up. Speculation aside, having Vogel on the team for as long as he ends up staying should be great for the Mavericks. We often look at what a new coaching hire will do for the players, but we shouldn’t overlook what he can do for the other coaches either. Kidd already expressed how much he has learned from Vogel and it’s likely coaches like Dudley, Sean Sweeney and others will glean value from having Vogel around. It feels like the Mavericks finally got a coach they were targeting in years past, and he should bring a lot to the table this season, and hopefully beyond. Jason Kidd said it best. “Hopefully, we can win another title together.”