How Steve Kerr convinced Frank Vogel to skip a sabbatical and revive Warriors’ defense

Frank Vogel did not come as part of the Warriors‘ Great Pitch, first off. No mere pawn, in pursuit of the King.

Could one connect the dots between Steve Kerr‘s mid-July hire of Vogel – the Lakers’ championship-winning head coach in 2019-20 – and Golden State’s run at LeBron James in free agency? Obviously, Vogel said. Could that have helped the Warriors’ case with James? Sure, Vogel acknowledges.

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“LeBron and I still have a great relationship, so that may have been something that could’ve been enticing to him,” Vogel told the Chronicle Wednesday at Chase Center. “But whether we had LeBron or not – and we, from what I understand, felt like it was still a long-shot to get him. So that was not the purpose in hiring me.”

The purpose was to gain a new defensive mind, with a relationship built by handshakes across eras. Kerr has told Vogel he’s admired his approach as the two have squared off over the past decade. After the Suns fired Vogel in 2024, Kerr reached out that summer to meet for lunch in Manhattan Beach, pitching Vogel on joining his staff.

Vogel wasn’t in the headspace, at the time. He’d held four head-coaching jobs in the past nine years with Indiana (through 2016), Orlando (2016-18), Los Angeles (2019-22) and Phoenix (2023-24). And he was prepared to likely take a sabbatical this summer, too, after a couple years consulting and then assisting the now-fired Jason Kidd in Dallas.

But Kerr rang again, and Vogel’s mind flashed back to that lunch two summers ago.

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“Most scenarios or situations in the NBA,” Vogel said, “it would’ve been a ‘no,’ for me to jump right back into another job.”

Golden State, though, presented a golden rung back up the ladder, even if the current makeup isn’t the same as the juggernaut he once knew from shaking Kerr’s hand back in Indiana. Vogel’s lips twisted into a knowing smile Thursday, when posed a question about low external expectations for these Warriors. He wants to be a head coach again, when the time is right; in the process, he has chosen a job to build the defense of a roster that is banged-up. And aging.

He has chosen this job, though, because he feels Golden State still has “plenty of defensive talent to be great,” as he said Thursday.

“Any team with Steph and Draymond can win,” Vogel said. “They’ve just had injuries, the last couple years. That’s the only reason. So, that starting point alone gives you confidence that you can win at a high level.

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“And obviously, we’re being counted out because Jimmy Butler‘s not available and (Moses) Moody’s not available, early on,” he continued. “But if you can keep your head above water to start the season, those guys come back – now you become one of the most dangerous teams in the league. And you can have a very high ceiling.”

On Thursday, the Warriors officially announced Vogel as Kerr’s de-facto defensive coordinator, a key external addition to a staff that’s seen a major overhaul. Former assistants Terry Stotts and Jerry Stackhouse departed with the expirations of their contracts in May, as Golden State also promoted former player-development coach Everett Dayton as an assistant coach and director of player development.

And Vogel will now effectively replace Stackhouse and also be named Golden State’s associate head coach, a title that these Warriors haven’t bestowed upon an assistant since Mike Brown left in 2022.

Vogel isn’t shy about where he wants to go. Even after that Lakers ring, he feels his “best head-coaching years are ahead of me,” he told the Chronicle. But he was fired two years after that title in Los Angeles amid an incongruent James-Russell Westbrook pairing, and fired after one year with the Suns because of a first-round playoff sweep.

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“They’re all scars,” Vogel said, asked about head-coaching lessons. “The scars accumulate. And they protect you from other areas. And every failure is an opportunity to reflect, and grow. So, there’s definitely things that I could have done better in those spots. But there’s also things that are out of your control as a head coach that sometimes get pinned on the head coach – not sometimes, but very often.”

He grinned. Knowingly.

“I don’t know how much I want to say about it publicly, but I have a lot of confidence in what’s ahead of me, when the time comes,” Vogel continued. “But it’s very important to me that, your piece – that’s for when it happens. I am not hunting it. I’m excited about being in this role, for this team, and supporting Steve, and helping Steph and Draymond get another chance at a ring.”

That last point is no easy task, at the moment. Vogel will have to implement a new defensive system without two key wing defenders in Butler and Moody, who are both rehabbing knee injuries. Still, he sees a path.

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That starts with Green, the nine-time All-Defensive supercomputer who Vogel said was a “big reason” he took the job.

“You want your defense to have teeth, you know what I mean?” Vogel said. “And he scared the s- out of me every time I played against the Warriors. I know that if he’s playing, it’s going to be hard to win that game, and it’s going to be hard to score.”

Vogel’s eyes lit up, too, amid a conversation of his core defensive principles. In 11 full seasons as an NBA head coach, his teams have finished first in the NBA in defensive rating three times and finished top-10 seven times; the philosophy has never changed, built upon protecting the rim from inside out. Every player on the floor in Vogel’s defense is required to protect the rim, regardless of size, he implores. Seven-footers must be shot-blockers. Smaller guards must play vertical, or take charges.

Enter guard Brandin Podziemski, who has finished top five in charges drawn in each of his three NBA seasons.

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“I joke with BP that he’s every bit of a great rim protector as (Kristaps) Porzingis is,” Vogel said. “Because you put your body in front of the ball and take charges – one of the best charge-takers in the game – you’re protecting the rim.”

Speaking, then, of the 7-foot-3 Porzingis: Vogel’s best defenses have been anchored by a legitimate rim-protecting big. He had two-time All-Star Roy Hibbert in Indiana. He had a rotating cast of Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee in Los Angeles.

And now he has Porzingis, for as often as the 31-year-old center’s body will allow.

“We feel like Kristaps can fill that role,” Vogel said. “And I’m really excited about putting him in my defensive system. Because there’s a lot of details I believe in with my defensive system and how I use shot-blocking bigs that really gets a lot out of ’em on that side, and I really look forward to putting KP in those spots.”

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He spoke of 6-9, 250-pound rookie Yaxel Lendeborg, meanwhile, as almost the final piece of a three-man puzzle with Green and Porzingis (or another center). Vogel’s best defenses, too, have been “big and strong and powerful,” as he described; in Butler and Moody’s absences, Lendeborg will likely be tasked early and often with leveraging his strength against scoring wings.

“Most rookies get overpowered, early in their career,” Vogel said. “Ain’t nobody gonna punk this kid.”

This is far from a crystal-clear picture. It requires Porzingis, who re-signed on a two-year, $40 million deal this summer, to be available when historically he has often not been. It requires little physical decline from the 36-year-old Green. It requires Lendeborg to be capable of holding his own, at times, against quicker-footed scorers.

But Vogel wouldn’t have answered Kerr’s call, after all, if he couldn’t see it.

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“It wasn’t a fair fight for them, the last couple years,” Vogel said, reflecting on Golden State’s run of injuries. “So hopefully we have some health, and some buy-in to a new defensive system that’ll help us be great.”

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This article originally published at How Steve Kerr convinced Frank Vogel to skip a sabbatical and revive Warriors’ defense.