Lately? Almost every decision made since Shaq left has helped this team become great now. It might not have seemed like it at the time, but in retrospect, whether it be by luck or design, we have one of the most successful front offices of this decade. The whole "our front office sucks" idea was perpetuated by Kobe and his public trade demands. He really screwed things up for us (admitted himself that he was wrong for going about it the way he did), but luckily our front office stayed adamant and did their jobs.
I think the success of the Lakers' franchise recently combines elements from both parties. I have no idea what the front office would have done had Kobe not gone out and made the case for improvement. No player should play GM but the amount of frustration that Kobe had was enough to put him over the edge and publicly demand some help to get the team off of, in his words, "ground zero". No-one will know whether or not Mitch would've pulled the trigger for Pau once he was made available, but at the same time, I don't think the pressure Kobe put on him hurt, because at that point no-one knew if Kobe was really going to stick around or not. Mitch had the decision of either keeping Kobe happy by doing everything possible to surround him with complementary players that were not too young nor too old, or lose him where you're looking at a much worse situation where the rebuilding process would take an undefined number of years.
I don't know if the moves they made post-Shaq were really productive or counter-productive, but I will say that at the time Shaq was a necessary loss because without that trade, you wouldn't be rooting for the Lakers to get back to the Finals for the 2nd consecutive time this year. This team is a lot better of an atmosphere for Kobe, because he can relate to them on an even field, and they come across as a band of brothers. If Shaq were added to this team, I don't see Shaq putting up a fight or trying to tear the team down, but rather I'd see him helping Andrew Bynum and Gasol on different aspects of their game.
Sometimes time heals all, but sometimes time reveals all. In this case Shaq and Kobe have revealed a lot about who they both really are, and I'm damn proud of Kobe for how he's come up out of the Colorado scandal and is back on top with a chance for multiple championships for years to come. Shaq would be smart to try to reunite with the organization and city he has had the most success in. If he and the organization could let the past go and move forward, then that's fine, but if there's going to be issues from both sides, then life's too short and it's not worth gambling the success of a season.
