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What's troubling is that they didn't really get here by virtue of foresight. They traded for Dwight and lost him for nothing. They lost Pau for nothing. They tried and didn't get Aldridge. They didn't even get a meeting with Durant. They were trying to tread water this whole time and struck out over and over.

Well the Buss family is steering the ship, so none of their strikeouts surprised me.

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They're in a good spot but not because of intelligent design. It's by happenstance. And they're trying to mess it up. Signings like Mozgov indicate that they still don't get it. 4 year deal makes no sense.

It's funny, even when the Lakers screw up, something decent falls into their lap. They got Russell and Ingram in consecutive years which is really fortunate, they've found guys like Nance and Clarkson that were definitely under-the-radar guys, and they got a coach that's not only a popular young prospect, but a guy not too far removed from the glory days. In typical Laker fashion, the basketball gods give them breaks even in lean years.

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Someone like Riley or West would've let Kobe walk/retire, you offer him half of what he ended up getting. Meanwhile you develop guys like Clarkson, Randle, Russell and Nance without Kobe here to stunt their growth.

I really don't think Kobe stunted their growth too much. Again, timing is everything. Were those guys gonna thrive in a Byron Scott offense? Would they play hard without a veteran presence during a a 17-win season? A young, bad team with a bad coach probably wouldn't develop as much as you think. These guys now get to run the show with a young, players' coach at the helm.

I truly think things worked out for the best. The fans and players got to witness Kobe for a little longer, he was handsomely rewarded for all he put into that franchise, the team sucked so bad that they loaded up on young assets, and they got their top target as a head coach after he spent some time under another young, new head coach in the West.

To answer the original question, the Lakers are still 2-3 years away from being in the conversation.