Indiana Pacers: Frank Vogel Signs Extension

Coming off one of the most historic mid-season collapses in NBA history, the Indiana Pacers’ summer didn’t get much better in the weeks that followed. But since the Pacers fell from Eastern Conference contenders to a fringe playoff team by losing their two best players, it appears their head coach’s future is no longer in doubt.

Frank Vogel has reached a multi-year contract extension with Indiana, the team announced Wednesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

In his full three seasons coaching the team, Vogel has a 147-82 record (.641 winning percentage) and has led his team to at least the Eastern Conference semifinals in each year.

Under Vogel, the Pacers became one of the league’s best defensive teams, anchored by Roy Hibbert‘s superb rim protection, David West‘s toughness and Paul George and Lance Stephenson terrorizing the wings. Though the departure of Stephenson to the Charlotte Hornets and PG-13’s severe offseason leg injury will make for a rough 2014-15 season, president of basketball operations Larry Bird made the right decision to extend Vogel.

With Stephenson and George out, the Pacers have suddenly lost their two best wing defenders, rebounders, playmakers and perimeter shooters. Unless Hibbert is ready to step up and be a leader of this team — an unlikely prospect given his penchant for shrinking from the moment last year — Indiana might not even make the playoffs in 2014-15. Extending Vogel is the right move now, but the true test will come if the Pacers miss the postseason with a team Bird feels should compete night in and night out.

It wouldn’t be the first time Vogel’s job security came into question, however.

Despite leading the Pacers to their second straight Eastern Conference Finals appearance, there were whispers about Vogel’s future with the team as Indiana began to fall apart in the second half of the season. The Pacers managed to lock up the first seed in the East with a 56-26 record, but they compiled an 11-13 in the last two months of the regular season and looked pretty vulnerable heading into the playoffs.

The cries for Vogel’s head became louder in the first round, when the Pacers had to battle through a tough seven-game series against a 38-win Atlanta Hawks team. Indiana was able to advance to the semifinals, where they beat an inexperienced Washington Wizards team in six games, but the Pacers then fell to the Miami Heat for the second year in a row in the conference finals.

The Pacers started the 2013-14 season with a 20-3 record and looked like the perfect foil to end Miami’s reign of terror in the East, but then the team began to collapse midseason. Hibbert’s confidence looked shot. George stopped making jumpers and Stephenson became known more as a head case than the NBA season leader in triple-doubles. The offense sputtered and the defense wasn’t quite as imposing as it was just months before.

But blaming Vogel entirely for that collapse would have been foolish, especially since he’s emerged as one of the best dozen coaches in the NBA. Extending Vogel is not only a smart move, but it also provides stability and will keep the team competitive for the future. In a lost season, that’s about as much as you can ask for on the coaching front.