While this season's Lakers have taken serious steps forward, they will have little bearing on the franchise's future. But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy this wonderfully weird group.
The NBA is objectively more fun when the Lakers are good—and winning—and pissing everyone off. So it's important to be careful with Lakers praise. Especially in these lean years, it's easy for fans and media to read too much into moderate progress. In the blink of an eye, we go from, "Hey, wait, the Lakers aren't terrible anymore" to talking about next year's playoff expectations, free-agency dreams and promises about a return to dominance. This is the most successful NBA franchise of the past 40 years so I…
