Indiana Pacers interim coach Frank Vogel is eyeing a permanent job - NBA News
The Indiana Pacers’ interim coach Frank Vogel is eyeing a permanent job since he turned the tables for the squad after taking over from former-coach Jim O’ Brien at mid-season.
Vogel explained his perspective why he wants to be the next head coach of the Pacers. When he took over, the Pacers had 20 victories and 18 losses in the regular-season. From there he took them to the play-offs for the first time after 2006.
Vogel said, “One thing I learned the last three months is that I can do this. I’m confident in my leadership abilities, my management abilities, my coaching abilities. It’s been an honour to coach the last few months, it would be an honour to coach in the
future.”
Pacers’ President Larry Bird was also impressed with his effort and told that he will have the first shot at the head coach job.
Bird said, “I think Frank did an excellent job, stepping in without the experience of a head coaching job. The way he conducted himself, he brought positive energy to this team. We won more games than we lost. We did it with a young team, a team that’s trying
to grow.”
Environment of the locker-room changed right away with the introduction of Vogel. He did not just change the approach of the Pacers towards the game, but also assign new roles to the players.
In his early period, when Indiana was struggling to find a berth in the 2011 Playoffs, Vogel came out strong and claimed that top teams of the Eastern Conference Boston Celtics, Miami Heat and Orlando Magic were hesitant to play against the Pacers.
It was Vogel who increased forward Tyler Hansbrough minutes dramatically, as the player did not let his coach down and showed some high-quality performances.
Frank introduced the Pacers to the “smashmouth” basketball, which focuses more on driving towards the basket instead of striking more from the three-point range that puts the defence under pressure.
Under Vogel the Pacers straight away won seven games out of their first 10, then went through a bad patch in which they lost eight of nine, but Indiana bounced back in tremendous fashion and won the next 10 games out of 15 that enabled them to register a
berth in the 2011 Play-offs.
However, Vogel knows that his future with the Pacers is not yet confirmed and it will take some time, as this is the last year of Larry Bird’s contract with Indiana. If, Bird returns as team president again then there is high probability that he might be
chosen as the next head coach of the team.
The 34-year-old Vogel has achieved so much in a very short span, but he is still eager and believes that he can do better than before, if the management gave him the opportunity to coach the team on a permanent basis.
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