In the immediate aftermath of the Indiana Pacers losing Game 7 of their first-round series to the Toronto Raptors, coach Frank Vogel's situation became very tenuous. Yahoo! Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Vogel's contract is up and there had been no discussions about an extension.

Pacers president Larry Bird didn't want to talk about the status of Vogel right after the game on Sunday, but a day later, he told Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star he's undecided about the future of his head coach. Larry Legend also offered up this non-vote of confidence for Vogel: "What I don't want to do is leave Frank hanging - there's other jobs out there he could get." Three days after that, he officially relieved Vogel of his duties.

The statement about other job openings is certainly true. The Houston Rockets, New York Knicks and Sacramento Kings are still going through the process of hiring a coach, and Woj noted Sunday that Vogel would have "intense appeal" on the market. Vogel is widely regarded as a good coach, as he's racked up a 250-181 record in five-plus seasons in Indiana on the back of consistently elite defense. This year's iteration ranked third in the NBA in defensive efficiency, per NBA.com, despite some significant changes to the roster.

The obvious question: Why, then, did Bird let a good coach go? There are a few reasons.

Vogel has never really been Bird's preferred choice

Bob Kravitz, formerly of The Indianapolis Star, noted this late in the 2014 season when the Pacers were in an ugly tailspin and rumors swirled around Vogel's future:

But know this: Vogel is not Larry Bird's guy. Bird was hesitant to fire Jim O'Brien [in 2011] in the first place, and even after Vogel turned the team around and got them to play competitively in the playoffs against the Chicago Bulls, it took a couple of months before Bird was willing to give Vogel the full-time job. If you remember, Bird wanted Vogel to hire a big-time, experienced assistant, specifically Brian Shaw, before giving him the job.

Vogel received a contract extension a year prior in January 2013, but that was when Bird took a year-long leave of absence from the team to deal with health issues. Bird returned for the 2013-14 campaign, and while the team got off to a 40-11 start, a second-half slide led to frustration throughout the organization.

Bird candidly expressed his disappointment to Kravitz in early March 2014:

"A lot of times, we don't take the fight to them (the opponent),'' Bird said Tuesday, before the Pacers snapped a four-game losing streak by beating the Boston Celtics 94-83 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. "A lot of times we sit back and wait and see how it goes. And that was the case even when we were winning a lot of games early in the season. We've got to be mentally prepared to really go after the teams we're playing again. We can't have the mindset it's just another game; it's a very important game. All of them are.''

And while Bird publicly showed some support for Vogel, he also explicitly noted areas of his coaching that needed improvement:

"I'm sort of going to Frank's side because he's had so much success by staying positive,'' Bird said. "We do have to stay the course. But I also think he's got to start going after guys when they're not doing what they're supposed to do. And stay on them, whether you've got to take them out of the game when they're not doing what they're supposed to do or limit their minutes. I will say, he hasn't done that enough. "...Do I think they'll come out of it? Yeah, but I don't think it'll happen overnight.''

Both ESPN's Marc Stein and Wojnarowski suggested Vogel was coaching for his job in the postseason. He saved it as the Pacers reached the Eastern Conference Finals for the second consecutive year, although they limped there by squeaking by a 38-win Atlanta Hawks team and then defeating a flawed Washington Wizards squad in the second round.

The result was another contract extension for Vogel, but these seeds of frustration were planted several years back.

The offense really did stink

Bird expressed his displeasure with the team's offensive output to Doyel on Monday: "It's no secret - I want us to score more points." In announcing Vogel's departure on Thursday, Bird reiterated that desire to everyone.

Bird put some of the onus on the players for not getting the job done this time around, but poor offense has been a consistent theme of Vogel's tenure. In the last four seasons, the Pacers haven't finished higher than 19th in offensive efficiency, and they were 23rd this season. Indiana's offense was slightly more efficient in the playoffs, but that's a small sample size against a shaky Raptors defense and there were wild swings in effectiveness from game to game.

The Pacers' offensive struggles were often evident in crunch time this season. Indiana made just 1-of-25 shots with 10 seconds or fewer left in a one-possession game, which is partially bad luck, but also a troubling trend of poor execution and a failure to create good looks. Too often, the offense was disorganized and/or predictable, which allowed opposing defenses to easily clamp down and force inefficient opportunities.

Not only did these woes hurt the Pacers over and over again in the regular season, but it cost them Game 5 in Toronto and ultimately the series. Indiana held a comfortable 13-point lead going into the fourth quarter, but then proceeded to score two points over the first nine-plus minutes of the frame and nine points total.

Vogel's questionable decisions with his player rotations helped play a factor in the collapse. He opened the quarter without any of Paul George, George Hill or Monta Ellis on the floor, something that happened too often all season. Vogel caught heat throughout the series for not staggering his best offensive players' minutes more effectively.

Don't forget those philosophical differences

After missing the playoffs last year, Bird expressed his desire for the team to transition to a small-ball approach that emphasized pace-and-space offense. Veteran frontcourt stalwarts Roy Hibbert and David West left the picture, and the plan was for George to play more power forward.

However, George never fully embraced the role and Bird's vision didn't materialize as hoped. Indiana did play faster this season and Vogel used smaller lineups a little more often, but by the new year, he switched George back to the wing and reverted to starting two big men again. The roster Bird built may not have been ideal for going small, but it's fair to question whether Vogel can effectively coach that type of style.

"Over time, I think it would have worked a lot better as people got familiar with each other, with us shooting a lot of threes," Bird told reporters Thursday.

That's why Bird decided to make a move. Vogel may be a good coach, but as the team continues its transition, Bird felt he needs a different voice to help implement his vision.

A change wouldn't guarantee a significant improvement -- no change does in the NBA and Vogel has a track record of success. That said, there'd at least be some logic behind a decision to let Vogel go. This may be a case of coach and team simply needing to move on from each other.

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Everyone messed up at the end of the Thunder-Spurs game