Letters: Lakers fans now looking out for No. 2

Bill Plaschke’s rhetorical question — “They can’t blow it now. Can they?” regarding the Lakers ending up with the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft — begs to be answered.

And the answer is that as long as Jimmy Buss is making the pick, Lakers fans have every reason to believe he will serve up another on-court debacle with his less-than-Magic touch.

Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Mike Brown, Mike D’Antoni, D’Angelo “Not-So-Smartphone” Russell, and a host of D-League players all star in the Jimmy Buss Under-Achievers Parade of the last three seasons. Do I hear four?

Gino Cirignano

Playa del Rey

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The Lakers celebrating the second pick in the NBA draft lottery is like the guy who celebrates after simply purchasing a Powerball ticket: You must wait for the numbers to come in before anyone wins anything.

Jeff Nuzzi

Pasadena

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Now that all Lakers fans can exhale because they kept their precious pick, please take a step back from the nonsense that this will turn the team from its current state. There is no Lew Alcindor, Shaquille O’Neal or Tim Duncan waiting. The two top picks are so flawed, it would be in the best interest of the teams to trade them away.

Unless they strike gold in free agency or via trades, the Lakers will certainly be back holding their breath next season for ping-pong balls to fall their way. Just remember this: The Timberwolves have the last two rookies of the year and they still were in the lottery — and the Lakers currently have nowhere near that talent.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

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Dear Mitch and Jim,

Congrats on getting the No. 2 pick. Now, please go on vacation for five weeks until the draft. Do not overthink this. Whether it is Ingram or Simmons, take whichever player falls to you. Do not try to outsmart the world like last year. Sometimes the obvious choice is the correct choice.

Joe Nadeau

Santa Clarita

Oh, those Dodgers

I just bought stock in the parent company of Tums. My stomach cannot handle another performance by the Dodgers’ bullpen.

Jeff Black

Los Angeles

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Any chance we can trade the Lakers’ No. 2 draft pick to get another starting pitcher for the Dodgers?

Brian Greene

Monrovia

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Dear Andrew Friedman,

Maybe if they create the stat IAWP, which stands for inconsistently awful performance, you’ll finally unload those league leaders, Chris Hatcher and Yasiel Puig.

Jeff Phillips

Huntington Beach

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The failure to surround an in-his-prime Clayton Kershaw with other great players is akin to the Lakers wasting Kobe’s last years. And at least the Lakers tried with Howard and Nash. The Dodgers brass chose to build this team by assembling the best bench in baseball, not the best players, and, sure, they’ll all be fresh in September but they’ll also be 15 games out. Trade Pederson and Urias (and throw in Puig) for Mike Trout and the Dodgers help themselves and the Angels!

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

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It was great to get to see the Dodgers on TV five nights in a row. Another few weeks and I might get to know some of the Dodgers’ new regulars. That’s the best we DirecTV customers can expect from the greedy Dodgers. Thanks to ESPN and the Angels for the opportunity. The only thing that could have made it better would have been to hear Vin Scully. Maybe next year .... oh, right. I forgot.

Bob Sands

La Habra

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Dodgers fans have always left in the late innings to avoid traffic. Now with the current bullpen, fans parked beyond the pavilion are leaving early to avoid windshield damage.

Tom Moore

Brentwood

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The Dodgers should recognize that Yasiel Puig has a great career ahead of him ... as a bar bouncer in Miami.

Harley F. Pinson

Bakersfield

Trout fishing

Do you trade young players in the beginning of their prime? Like a Manning brother, a Kobe, a Mantle, a Gretzky or a Beckham? Who comes up with this nutty stuff?

Ken Johnson

Piñon Hills

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You say that the possibility of the Angels trading Mike Trout is dumb. Well, it’s not. It’s an idea that ranks right there with the Red Sox trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees!

Kenneth Blain

Aliso Viejo

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The Cubs don’t need to deplete their roster to get Mike Trout.

A simple one-for-one trade. Trout for Theo Epstein. It’s a win-win situation. The Cubs get the best player in the game and the Angels get the best executive in the game. Epstein will teach Arte Moreno how to spend his money!

Loren Coleman

West Hollywood

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For the last two seasons while enduring the swan song of Kobe, I questioned the Lakers’ thinking. To see that the Angels would even consider trading Mike Trout makes Jim Buss look like a genius.

Jeff Heister

Chatsworth

Grading L.A.

Bill Plaschke, I think that your vision is off [“Flunked Out, May 15]. This has been a great year for Los Angeles.

As I write this USC, UCLA and Pepperdine are all in the hunt for national championships in water polo, tennis, golf and track and field. UCLA posted APR scores over 930 for all 22 of its programs and 15 of them scored perfect 1000s. All pretty good stuff.

Just because the Lakers and USC football are not well is not the end of the world. Their wounds are self-inflicted.

Kevin Minihan

Los Angeles

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Poor Mr. Plaschke, whining about how woeful it is to be an L.A. sports fan. Well, consider this: The city of Los Angeles has won 21 championships since 1964 or so. Cleveland and San Diego have had none. Atlanta, Milwaukee, and New Orleans just one apiece. Take a pill, Bill.

Thomas Michael Kelley

Newbury Park

Don’t forget

Are you kidding me? How can a front page article about Roz Wyman and the Dodgers [“L.A. Woman,” May 14] fail to mention the Chavez Ravine debacle, i.e., the despicable displacement of human beings, and the politically inspired incentives offered to the Dodgers in order to make them a deal they couldn’t refuse, including, but not limited to, an incredibly low price for Chavez Ravine?

Bob Burk

Los Angeles

Fight club

In light of Rougned Odor’s actual “punch-out” of Juan Bautista, I hope cliche-hunting baseball broadcasters and reporters will now refrain from calling every strikeout a “punch-out.”

Rhys Thomas

Valley Glen

A good sign

Thanks, Dan Haren [May 15]. A great reminder that baseball players are just ordinary people with extraordinary talents.

However, can I have your autograph?

Jeffrey A. Friedman

Newhall

A bad lie

Phil Mickelson either simply does what his brokers say without question, which is not really his style at all, or he knew exactly what was going on (“Mickelson agrees to repay funds,” May 20). The SEC either believes he is guilty but that a jury won’t convict him because of his celebrity status, or is choosing not to charge him because of their own infatuation with his celebrity status. Either way, he is getting preferential treatment because of that status.

My guess is that more SEC prosecutors play golf than like decorating and cooking with Martha Stewart.

Jeffrey C. Briggs

Hollywood

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