Letters: This Lakers season will be unpredictable, at best

Here are some projections for the upcoming Lakers season:

Opening night: Lakers fans give LeBron James a 10-minute standing ovation. Lakers lose game. Luke Walton says it will take time for team chemistry to kick in.

After Christmas Day loss, Walton is fired and replaced by recently fired Cleveland coach Ty Lue.

Lakers trade future draft pick for J.R. Smith.

Lakers become the eighth seed and are promptly swept by Houston in the first round of the playoffs. Ty Lue is fired. So is Magic Johnson. And Rob Pilenka.

Jeanie Buss hires Phil Jackson as coach and head of basketball operations.

Lakers lose opening game of 2019-2020 season.

Gary H. Miller

Encino

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Great series on 1968, but most would say the Lakers lost the 1968-69 championship, because coach Butch van Breda Kolff refused to put Wilt back in the fourth quarter of Game 7, not due to the Big Dipper’s injury.

Ken Feldman

Los Angeles

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So Dan Woike thinks that the trade that sent Bill Russell to the Celtics was “comically absurd.” Too bad Dan doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

The Celtics sent Easy Ed MacAuley and Cliff Hagan, both six-time All-Stars. Both became mainstays of a Hawks team that took Russell’s Celtics to a third overtime in the seventh game of the Finals in 1957 before losing, beat the Celtics in six games for the 1958 championship, and took them to another seventh game in 1960, with the then-retired MacAuley coaching.

Rather than “comically absurd,” it was a terrific trade for both.

Tony Medley

Los Angeles

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Magic’s next two moves:

1) Sign Jim Brown.

2) Replace Luke Walton with Lee Marvin/

Succeed or fail, this is going to be entertaining.

Brad Askew

Vancouver, Wash.

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Let us look at some of the Lakers’ signings and players lost to another team. Center-signed, JaVale McGee, lost-Brook Lopez, Channing Frye. Forward signed, Michael Beasley, lost Julius Randle. Guards-signed Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo, lost Isaiah Thomas.

In all cases, the lost player was better than the signed player. If the Lakers are going to win with LeBron James, they need to keep their most talented players

Theodore C. Friedman

Los Angeles

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Just read Broderick Turner listed the Eastern Conference as one of the winners in the NBA offseason. The Eastern Conference would be lucky to finish fourth in the Pac-12 and then they lost LeBron. Broderick will be at the Improv all week.

Craig A. Nelson

Solana Beach

Manny wouldn’t?

Manny Machado is the most recent in a long line of mid-year trades that have helped the Dodgers add many additional late-season wins, but still missing the brass ring in a World Series win that has eluded them for 30 years. The Dodgers miss by a wide margin in the pitching area, but will lead the NL in home runs by even more than they do today.

Gene Grant

Palm Desert

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It doesn’t matter who the Dodgers acquire. They are forever cursed for paying the terrible previous owner the obscene sum of $2 billion.

Dave Thoma

Ventura

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The Yankees beat the Dodgers to the punch as they have reliever Britton. They also acquired a first-rate pitcher from Toronto, rendering the Dodgers hapless.

Ted La Mothe

Long Beach

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May be time to realize that one of the greatest Dodgers pitcher is fragile and unreliable, and prospects for improvement are slim. When Clayton Kershaw is good, he’s brilliant, but you cannot depend on him as he gets older. Let him walk if he decides that’s in his best interest.

Steve Tye

Diamond Bar

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Great story on Ron Fairly! It gave me new stories of the bigger-than-life Dodgers I grew up with and reminded me why I have been a fan from day one. Better still, the story helped my English wife understand my love for the game of baseball.

Curtis Dale

Upland

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Come on, Bill Shaikin! You should know better! Your email box will be filling up today with comments about “The Padres boast the best ballpark in Southern California” from Sunday’s “Three Up, Three Down” column. Unless you are working part-time as The Times new architecture critic, you misspoke. Great ballparks are not just about shiny and new. They are about memories and moments that last for generations. Dodger Stadium has given us Koufax, Drysdale, Fernando, Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, Clayton Kershaw and Scully. Not to mention the most gorgeous twilight view in all of baseball. Petco Park? Swing and a miss, Bill.

Gregg Daniel

Venice

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Baseball may have lost a generation of fans,” states Jim Kahler, executive director of the AECOM Center for Sports Administration at Ohio State. This is especially true where the Dodgers are concerned, owing to their adherence to three seldom-discussed sabermetric categories.

GBS: Greed Beyond Sanity, which is the obscene amount of money from their Time Warner Cable deal , divided by the 65% of the blackout out fan base times the number of fans that no longer give a damn;

FLTA: Fans Lost To Arrogance, which is the number of fans who didn’t switch to Spectrum times the number of kids who will never see the Dodgers play;

DSE: Dollars Spent Elsewhere, which is the number of disenchanted fans who have transferred their spending habits and sports interests to a team they can actually see.

Bill Waxman

Simi Valley

Football season

If Clay Helton wants to spotlight his players, how about doing everybody a favor and put names on the jerseys? Also speaking of USC football uniforms, let’s join the 21st century and use variations on our tired uniforms. For instance, we’re Cardinal & Gold, so how about real gold instead of yellow?

Gerard Lollie

Altadena

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Bill Plaschke’s article about Chip Kelly and UCLA football, written by the biggest USC fan ever, could have been simply a “Hello” and “Welcome to UCLA.” Instead it turned into the rush to praise USC and to discredit UCLA. Opportunity missed — and not a surprise. Maybe when Bill writes about UCLA again, he can simply write about UCLA.

Carol Marshall

Placentia

What’s the deal?

With apologies to the late great Jim Healy, Rams GM Les Snead must have graduated from the Leonard Tose school of management. How else could you explain giving those huge deals to Brandin Cooks and Ndamukong Suh, two players with zero ties to the organization, while also handing a monster contract to a running back whom you have control over for three years. while all along ignoring if not flat-out disrespecting Aaron Donald, the best defensive player in the entire league, by not extending his clearly outperformed contract.

Greg Nersesyan

North Hollywood

Horse play

A non-interview interview with Belinda Stronach on horse racing this week.

Q: Belinda, is Tim’s progress where you want it to be?

A: He is truly passionate.

Q: But, is it as far along…?

A: He will make great progress…

Q: Again, Do you have a timetable?

A: We are committed.

Q: What metric do you use for success?

A: Many many words, but one word speaks loudest by its omission: “Fans”

What a disappointment.

Barry Alter

Encino

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Belinda Stronach avoided talking about one key reason many people don’t attend horse races. We care about the humane treatment of animals and don’t want to see them suffer and die for our entertainment. The season has only just started at Del Mar and already one horse is dead. If they don’t die on the track, they may die in training or at the slaughterhouse, after their racing career is over and their owners no longer find it profitable to feed and care for them. Most people aren’t aware that many hundreds of horses die in the racing industry in the U.S., and I predict that attendance will keep dwindling as this issue gets more attention.

Joy Zakarian

Cardiff

Fore!

Talk about the winner of the British Open, Francesco Molinari, not about the loser, Tiger Woods. Molinari had lots of chances to choke and he made great shot after great shot. Clutch putts, clutch long irons against the wind, clutch drives and clutch wedges. He never faltered. He clearly earned the victory. Give him his due.

Robert Bubnovich

Irvine

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Tiger Woods hasn’t won a major golf title in 10 years, but that doesn’t stop fans and the media from fawning all over him. This misguided adoration seems to be never-ending and is now bordering on the absurd.

It’s time for the media and fans to finally recognize the new wave of professional golf stars and put old Tiger on the back burner.

Charles Reilly

Manhattan Beach

Anaheim Heimlich

A few years ago, the Angels had a dispute between manager Mike Scioscia and then-GM Jerry Dipoto. Dipoto is now leading a playoff contender. Scioscia is not. It’s not just injuries that plague the Angels: it’s a lack of feel and plan for anything not within the analytics readouts.

Bruce N. Miller

Playa del Rey

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Mike Scioscia said, “stay tuned for when it really gets exciting.” He was referring to the rehab progress of Shohei Ohtani. Angel fans have had a difficult time waiting for the team to get exciting, which appears to not be any time soon.

Wayne Muramatsu

Cerritos

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It used to be “Spahn and Sain and pray for rain,” but for opponents of the Angels it seems to be “Walk Trout and wait for an out.”

Joe Bucz

Redondo Beach

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