This is the fourteenth of a planned series of threads analyzing games played, games started and transactions for the 1980-81 season. Before reading any further, see the introductory thread below:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4961
LOS ANGELES LAKERS – PART I
SEASON OVERVIEW
The Lakers had a 54-28 record. They finished second in the Pacific Division, and were the #3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. The Lakers actually had the second best record in the conference, two games better than the Midwest Division champion Spurs, but the two division champions were guaranteed the top two seeds.
In the First Round, the Lakers lost to the Rockets 2-1 in a best-of-three “miniseries”. They therefore played a total of 3 playoff games.
The Lakers used 14 different players for the season, three above the minimum.
ROSTER AND TRANSACTIONS
OPENING NIGHT ROSTER
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Jim Brewer
Butch Carter
Jim Chones
Michael Cooper
Alan Hardy
Brad Holland
*Tony Jackson
Earvin “Magic” Johnson
Mark Landsberger
Norm Nixon
*Myles Patrick
Jamaal Wilkes
*placed on injured list 10/9/80
IN-SEASON TRANSACTIONS
In the list below, anything which is underlined is the subject of discrepancies or guesswork, or is the result of further research beyond my usual sources.
11/5/80 – Placed Butch Carter on the injured list; activated Tony Jackson from the injured list.
11/11/80 – Placed Mark Landsberger on the injured list; activated Myles Patrick from the injured list.
11/15/80 – Activated Butch Carter from the injured list; waived Tony Jackson.
11/20/80 – Placed Earvin “Magic” Johnson on the injured list; traded a 1982 1st round pick to the Nets for Eddie Jordan.
12/2/80 – Activated Mark Landsberger from the injured list; waived Myles Patrick.
2/26/81 – Activated Earvin “Magic” Johnson from the injured list; placed Alan Hardy on the injured list.
Note: the Lakers finished the season with 12 players on their roster, including one on the injured list (Alan Hardy). During their brief playoff run, the team used only 10 players. The two remaining players, who did not appear in the playoffs, were Hardy and Butch Carter. One of them was presumably on the playoff roster but was not used in any games, while the other was inactive. I don’t have any documentation of which is which. Given that Hardy had been on the injured list since February, however, I think it is likely that Carter was the player who filled the 11th slot on the playoff roster, but wasn't used in any games, while Hardy was inactive.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
All of the comments I have for this section concern transactions where players moved on or off the injured list, or opposing moves to fill or vacate a roster spot.
10/9/80:
The Lakers started the season with Tony Jackson and Myles Patrick on the injured list, placing them on the IL the day before the season began, as NBA teams got their active rosters down to the 11-man limit. This move was reported in the transaction column in the following day’s Globe, and is also in several other newspapers in the Google News Archive.
11/5/80:
Butch Carter was placed on the injured list, and Tony Jackson activated. This move was reported in the transaction column in the following day’s Globe, and is also in several other newspapers in the Google News Archive. Carter was placed on the IL over concerns about a possible heart abnormality. According to an AP wire service story in the 11/7/80 Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News, Carter had already been medically cleared to play – presumably on 11/6, the day before the article, and the day after he was placed on the IL – but could not immediately return due to the rule than a player placed on the IL had to stay there for a minimum of five games. Looking at the Lakers’ schedule, Carter would need to miss the games on 11/7, 11/8, 11/11, 11/12 and 11/14, and would be eligible to return for the game on 11/16.
11/11/80:
According to the transaction column in the following day’s Globe, and several other newspapers in the Google News Archive, Mark Landsberger was placed on the IL. I have no documentation of what the Lakers did to fill Landsberger’s spot on the active roster; none of my sources that report Landsberger being placed on the IL provide this information. By all appearances, however, they activated Myles Patrick from the IL. Neither Landsberger nor Patrick played in the Lakers’ game on 11/11 (it isn’t clear if these moves were made before or after the game on that date), but Patrick made his Lakers debut the following day, on 11/12.
Note that at the time Landsberger was placed on the injured list, the only player on IL besides Patrick was Butch Carter, and Carter could not have been activated, because he had not yet spent five games on the IL.
11/15/80:
After spending the requisite five games on the IL, Butch Carter returned to action on 11/16. While I have no documentation of this, he must have been activated from the IL sometime between the game on 11/14 and the one on 11/16. This raises the question of who the Lakers removed from their active roster to make room. By all appearances, it was Tony Jackson. Jackson did not appear in any games after 11/11, and I don’t see how he could have been on the Lakers’ active roster at the time of the 11/16 game. The Lakers used 10 players in that game, and the 11th player on their active roster has to have been Norm Nixon, who didn’t play on 11/16 but played in both the preceding and following games.
There’s one problem with this, however. Multiple sources show Jackson being waived on 11/17/80, including the NBA Register, the Lakers Media Guide, and b-r.com. (It’s very possible that the NBA Register was where this originally came from, and the others used the Register as their ultimate source. From that point of view, the Register may really be the only source here.) But based on the box scores, I just don’t see how Jackson could have been waived any later than 11/16. Unfortunately, Jackson’s waiving never appeared in the transaction column in the Globe, and I couldn’t find any references to it in the Google News Archive, either, so we don’t have any contemporary news sources to check against. Maybe the “17” in the NBA Register is a typo which should be “14”, “15”, or “16” – in my experience, these types of minor typos are surprisingly common in the Register – and the other sources cited above copied this incorrect date from the NBA Register.
I am struck that the Jackson situation is very similar to another transaction we saw earlier in this series, when the Pacers waived Dick Miller, about a week after the Lakers waived Jackson. Several sources show Miller being waived on 11/24/80, but based on the timing of other transactions and on the TSN box scores, I don’t see how Miller could have been waived any later than 11/22/80, two days earlier. As in this case, it’s very possible that all sources other than the NBA Register got the date of Miller’s waiving from the Register, so the Register may be the only real source for the 11/24 date. And also like this case, I can’t find anything in a contemporary newspaper to check against. These may not be the only two cases. In starting to work on additional teams that I haven’t posted yet, I’ve also come across one or two additional examples of this.
What’s going on here? This is just speculation on my part, but I’m going to throw out a theory. In the NBA, when a player is placed on waivers for the purpose of releasing him – the only purpose for which waivers are used in the NBA – it is reported that the player has been “waived” as soon as he is placed on waivers. If he clears waivers, no further transaction will be reported. In Major League Baseball, by contrast, when a player is placed on waivers for the purpose of releasing him – one of multiple purposes for which waivers are used in MLB – nothing is reported. Only when he has cleared waivers it is reported that he has been “released”. (Note that in the NBA, the player’s roster spot opens up as soon as he is placed on waivers, while in MLB, it does not automatically open up until the player clears waivers. This may explain the difference in how the two sports report these transactions.)
Is it possible that these transactions somehow got written up in the NBA Register “baseball style”, so the date presented is actually the date the player cleared waivers, not the date he was placed on waivers? With a nod to this theory, I’m using 11/15 as the date Jackson was waived and Carter was activated from the IL.
11/20/80:
According to numerous papers in the Google News Archive, Magic Johnson suffered a severe knee injury in a game against the Kings on 11/18/80. By the next day, it had been determined that Johnson would miss 10 to 12 weeks. On 11/20/80, the Lakers acquired Eddie Jordan from the Nets in exchange for a future draft pick. While I have found articles noting that Jordan was being acquired to fill in for Johnson, I haven’t found any explicitly stating that Johnson was being placed on the injured list. He must have been, though, at or shortly before the point when Jordan was acquired, for there to have been room for Jordan on the active roster.
12/2/80:
According to multiple sources (NBA Register, Lakers Media Guide, and b-r.com), the Lakers waived Myles Patrick on 12/2/80. That date makes sense, as I believe it was the contract-guarantee deadline. None of these sources explain how the Lakers filled the roster spot, but by all appearances it was by activating Mark Landsberger from the injured list. Landsberger returned to action in the second game after 12/2, on 12/6/80.
When I checked for articles in the Google News Archive to confirm, I couldn’t find anything concerning Patrick being waived. But I did come across an article in the 11/26/80 Bangor (Me.) Daily News with a reference to Patrick that, while somewhat cryptic, doesn’t seem to mesh with the timeline laid out above. The article was about the Maine Lumberjacks of the CBA making their final cuts before the start of the CBA regular season. Patrick had played for the Lumberjacks the previous year, and the article discusses the possibility that he could ultimately join the team this year as well (in which case the Lumberjacks would need to clear an additional roster spot to make room for Patrick). The article states “Patrick was put on the disabled reserve list by the Los Angeles Lakers Tuesday and must now clear 72-hour waivers before any CBA team can claim him. There is a good chance that he will clear those waivers before the end of the week and could be back [with the Lumberjacks] by the weekend.” Tuesday would be 11/25, and the upcoming weekend would be 11/29 and 11/30.
I find that whole description to be very confusing. The waiver procedure under discussion isn’t familiar to me, although it may be a CBA process, not an NBA one. But I don’t understand why Patrick would be on waivers, or could potentially be coming to the CBA in the next few days, if he was placed on the Lakers’ disabled list. If he was in fact waived, there’s also obviously a conflict between this article stating that Patrick was waived by the Lakers on 11/25, and other sources stating that he was waived on 12/2. I’d almost like to say, “the author of this article didn’t know what they were talking about”, but some of the known facts aren’t entirely inconsistent with the article. First, Patrick did not appear in any games for the Lakers after 11/21. Based on that, it’s conceivably possible that the Lakers waived him or placed him on the IL on 11/25. In addition, if Patrick was waived or placed on the IL on 11/25, there’s no reason why Landsberger couldn’t have been activated to fill the roster slot, although Landsberger didn’t play in a game until 12/6.
The Globe meanwhile reported Patrick’s waiving in its 12/4/80 transaction column, which suggests that it happened on 12/3. That conflicts with the 12/2 date in other sources, but it’s obviously much closer to that date than to the 11/25 suggested in the Bangor Daily News article. I don’t usually make much of these one-day discrepancies between sources, which are surprisingly common; were it not for the Bangor Daily News article, I would just go with 12/2, and not even mention the discrepancy. 12/2 makes sense (contract-guarantee deadline), and it’s conceivably possible that the Globe was just a day late in running the report, especially with it being a transaction involving a West Coast team. I mention it only because it bolsters the idea that Patrick was waived on or about 12/2, rather than on or about 11/25.
For now, I’m sticking with 12/2, and assuming that Patrick stayed on the active roster until then. This could obviously stand to be nailed down better, though.
2/26/81:
Magic Johnson returned from his injury on 2/27/81. I don’t have any documentation of his being activated from the IL, but it must have happened on or shortly before that date. I also don’t have any documentation in my usual sources of how the Lakers cleared a roster spot for him.
By all appearances, the player removed from the roster was Alan Hardy, who did not appear in any games after 2/20. In the Google News Archive, I found an AP wire service story on Johnson’s return in two 2/27/81 papers – the Washington (Pa.) Observer-Reporter, and Victoria (Tex.) Advocate – which states that Hardy had been placed on the IL to make room for Johnson. I am assuming that Johnson’s activation and Hardy’s move to the IL happened the previous day, on 2/26.
GAMES STARTED INFO
MEDIA GUIDE
As far as I can see, the 2014-15 Lakers Media Guide has no historical games started information whatsoever, aside from its recap of the immediately preceding season (2013-14). So for the 1980-81 Lakers, we will need to rely solely on the TSN box scores.
TSN BOX SCORES
All but two of the TSN box scores for the 1980-81 Lakers appear to list the players in “starters first” F-F-C-G-G order. The two exceptions were games on 11/29/80 and 2/20/81.
--In the 11/29/80 box score, I see no obvious explanation for the order the Lakers players are listed in.
--In the 2/20/81 box score, the expected starters appear in the first, second, third, fifth and sixth slots. The fourth player listed is Jim Brewer. Taken at face value, this would suggest that Brewer started at guard, which makes little sense. Ignore Brewer, and the first five players listed (other than Brewer) are the expected starters, in the correct order.
At the time both of the above games were played, the Lakers had a stable starting lineup which had been static for at least the four previous games, and would remain static for at least the next three games. In both cases, it was the same group of five players (Chones, Wilkes, Abdul-Jabbar, Cooper, Nixon). I am assuming that these players started the games on 11/29/80 and 2/20/81.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
From the TSN box scores, after making the assumptions discussed above, I am getting the following games started totals for the season:
Wilkes 81
Abdul-Jabbar 80
Nixon 77
Chones 75
Cooper 40
Johnson 35
Carter 14
Brewer 8
As with the other teams for which we have no media guide numbers, I’m pretty confident that the games started numbers I’m coming up with are at least good estimates. But there are a few anomalies in the TSN boxes that I wish I had a media guide to square up with. Why would Cooper have started instead of Nixon on 10/25/80 and 12/21/80? Did Wilkes and Cooper really swap positions (Wilkes staring at SG, Cooper at SF) on 1/13/81? Did the Lakers really move Wilkes to guard for one game on 3/1/81, the last game before Magic Johnson returned to the starting lineup following his injury? Without media guide numbers to compare to, it’s hard to hold my games started numbers out as exact.
PLAYOFFS
As far as I can see, the Lakers Media Guide does not have games started stats for the playoffs. The TSN boxes show the following:
Abdul-Jabbar 3
Johnson 3
Nixon 3
Wilkes 3
Cooper 2
Chones 1
This is largely consistent with which players started towards the end of the regular season, but a few changes are apparent. After Chones started Game 1, the TSN boxes show him going to the bench, with Cooper taking his place for Game 2. For Game 3, the TSN boxes show Johnson moving to forward, with Cooper shifting to guard. While not necessarily what I would have expected to see, these moves seem plausible, especially when you consider that the Lakers were in the process of being upset in the First Round. Chones’ minutes were down significantly for the playoffs, which is also consistent with his having been benched. Again, it would be nice to have data in a media guide to check this against, but I’m assuming that the info indicated by the TSN box scores is correct.