This is the 21st of a 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
SEATTLE SUPERSONICS – PART I
SEASON OVERVIEW
The Sonics had a 34-48 record. They finished sixth and last in the Pacific Division, and tenth out of twelve teams in the Western Conference overall. The Sonics did not qualify for the playoffs.
The Sonics used 15 different players for the season, four above the minimum.
ROSTER AND TRANSACTIONS
OPENING NIGHT ROSTER
Dennis Awtrey
James Bailey
Fred Brown
James Donaldson
Bill Hanzlik
John Johnson
Vinnie Johnson
Lonnie Shelton
Jack Sikma
Wally Walker
Paul Westphal
Notable unsigned Veteran Free Agent: Gus Williams.
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.
11/3/80 – Placed Paul Westphal on the injured list; traded future considerations to the Warriors for Rudy White.
11/24/80 – Placed Lonnie Shelton on the injured list; traded a 1981 3rd round pick and cash to the Spurs for John Shumate.
12/1/80 – The November 24 trade involving John Shumate was voided due to an issue with Shumate’s physical condition.
12/2/80 – Traded two 2nd round picks (1983 and 1984) and cash to the Hawks for Armond Hill.
12/16/80 – Traded a 1983 1st round pick to the Pistons for Greg Kelser; waived Rudy White.
12/17/80 – The previous day’s trade involving Greg Kelser was voided after Kelser failed his physical.
12/18/80 – Activated Paul Westphal from the injured list.
1/19/81 – Placed James Donaldson on the injured list; signed Jacky Dorsey to a 10-day contract.
1/29/81 – Signed Jacky Dorsey to a second 10-day contract.
2/3/81 – Activated James Donaldson from the injured list; placed Dennis Awtrey on the injured list.
2/9/81 – Signed Jacky Dorsey as a free agent.
2/24/81 – Placed Paul Westphal on the injured list; activated Dennis Awtrey from the injured list.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
Injured list transactions:
11/3/80: The Sonics acquired Rudy White from the Warriors on 11/3/80. They must have made a corresponding move on or shortly before that date to open up a roster spot. While I have no documentation of this, by all appearances the corresponding move was to put Paul Westphal on the injured list. Westphal did not appear in any games between 10/25/80 and 12/22/80, and I have documentation that he was activated from the injured list on 12/18/80 (so he obviously has to have been placed on the IL at some point prior to that). The Google News Archive has numerous newspaper articles from late October and early November stating that Westphal was out with a foot injury, but I couldn’t find anything explicitly stating that he was being placed on the injured list. There was nothing in the transactions column in the Globe.
11/24/80: The Sonics acquired John Shumate from the Spurs on 11/24/80. They must have made a corresponding move on or shortly before that date to open up a roster spot. While I have no documentation of this, by all appearances the corresponding move was to put Lonnie Shelton on the injured list. Shelton did not appear in any games after 11/12/80. The Google News Archive has numerous newspaper articles from the period after 11/12 indicating that Shelton was having surgery to address a wrist injury and was out for the season, but I couldn’t find anything explicitly stating that he was being placed on the injured list. There was nothing in the transactions column in the Globe.
12/18/80: Westphal was activated from the injured list, filling the spot left open by the Greg Kelser trade having been voided. Westphal’s activation was in the transactions column in the following day’s (12/19) Globe, and is also in several 12/19 newspapers in the Google News Archive.
1/19/81: The Sonics signed Jacky Dorsey to a 10-day contract on 1/19/81. They must have made a corresponding move to open up a roster spot. I have no documentation of such a move in any of my usual sources, but several 1/20 newspapers in the Google News Archive report that it was to place James Donaldson on the injured list. Donaldson was absent from five consecutive games from 1/20/81 through 1/28/81 (the last five games before the All-Star break), which is the minimum number of games that a player placed on the IL was required to sit out. The transactions column in the 1/20 Globe had Dorsey’s signing, but did not mention Donaldson being placed on the IL.
2/3/81: According to several 2/4 newspapers in the Google News Archive, the Sonics activated James Donaldson and placed Dennis Awtrey on the IL. The 2/4 Globe transactions column had Awtrey being placed on the injured list, but not Donaldson being activated.
2/24/81: Awtrey returned to action on 2/24, so he must have been activated from the injured list at some point, and a corresponding move to open up a roster spot must have also been made. By all appearances, the corresponding move was to place Paul Westphal on the injured list. Westphal did not play in any games after 2/17. I can’t find any documentation of either Westphal being placed on the IL or Awtrey being activated from it, however. There was nothing in the Globe transactions column, and I can’t find anything in the Google News Archive, either. Lacking any better information, I am guessing that these moves were made on the date when Awtrey began playing again (2/24). For what it’s worth, the Archive does have an AP wire service story in the 2/28 Spokane (Wash.) Spokesman-Review reporting that, at that point, Westphal had been declared out for the season.
Rudy White:
Modern reference sources show that the Sonics traded a 1981 4th round pick to the Warriors for White, but articles and transactions columns in several 11/4/80 newspapers in the Google News Archive show that White was traded for “future considerations”. What the Warriors would receive for White may have been contingent on how long he stuck with the Sonics (the Sonics released White in December, and he never played in the NBA again after that). The 1981-82 NBA Register, published just a few months after the 1980-81 season ended, was already showing the 1981 4th round pick, so the determination had been made by then.
The transactions columns in several 11/4 newspapers in the Google News Archive report White both being traded from the Warriors to the Sonics, and signing a one-year contract with the Sonics. I assume that the Sonics signed him to a new contract upon acquiring him. Confusingly, however, several papers in the Google News Archive have an AP wire service story on the 11/3/80 Sonics-Cavaliers game which reports White being “signed” earlier in the day, with no mention that he was first acquired from the Warriors in a trade. A reader unaware of the earlier transaction might assume that White had been signed as a free agent after having been waived by his previous team. Along similar lines, the transactions column in the 11/4 Globe included White signing with the Sonics, but not being traded there from the Warriors.
John Shumate:
After being acquired on 11/24/80, Shumate was returned to the Spurs on 12/1/80. While it’s not unheard of for a trade to be rescinded, this one was unusual because the trade wasn’t reversed until a week later, and Shumate actually appeared in a couple of games for the Sonics during the interim. Shumate’s return to the Spurs was reported in the transactions column in the 12/2 Globe, and the Google News Archive has reports covering it from the 12/2 editions of several papers. The most extensive article in the Archive, from the Miami News, states that “the deal hinged on Shumate’s passing an extensive physical, which began Friday [11/28] and concluded yesterday [12/1]”. The article notes that Shumate “suffers from recurring blood clots in the lungs”, and that the Sonics’ team doctor “didn’t feel (Shumate) was ready to play”.
At first glance, it seems very odd to rescind a trade for a player not passing a physical 1) a week after the trade occurred, and 2) after the player has already appeared in games for his new team. The comments about Shumate needing to pass an “extensive physical” make me think this was something special negotiated as part of the trade agreement between the two teams, however, not your standard physical for a newly acquired player. Shumate had experienced major health issues in the past, having previously missed three entire seasons during his college and NBA careers. The Spurs subsequently waived Shumate. Whatever the issue was with Shumate’s health, it was apparently serious enough to scare other teams from picking him up. Even though he had been starting for the Spurs up until the time of the trade, Shumate never played in the NBA again after this.
It is well documented that the Sonics gave up a 3rd round pick and cash to get Shumate. This is how the trade is reported in the NBA Register, in the transactions column in the following day’s Globe, and in several other newspapers in the Google News Archive. There are some wonky descriptions in various other sources, however:
--b.r.com mentions the pick but not the cash. In my experience, it is fairly common for descriptions of trades to omit “minor” elements of the trade, and b-r.com seems to do this more than most. I suspect that is what is happening here.
--The Spurs Media Guide oddly mentions the cash but not the pick. I am thinking they may have omitted the pick under the theory that the pick was never exercised. Note that there is no mention of the trade subsequently being reversed, so omitting the pick may be correcting for the fact that the Spurs didn’t get it in the end. But I would think the same would apply to the cash; I presume it was returned when the trade was voided, along with the pick.
--pst.com hedges its bets by having two different sets of entries for this trade, one showing both the pick and the cash, one showing cash only (the latter likely sourced from the Spurs Media Guide). There are then two sets of entries showing both versions of the trade being rescinded on 12/1.
--When the trade was voided, it’s b-r.com’s turn to have two sets of entries. One version shows the 11/24 trade in reverse on 12/1, with no explicit statement that this represents a voiding of the original trade, followed by the Spurs waiving Shumate on 12/2 (which I believe is correct). The other version shows the Sonics waiving Shumate on 12/1 (which I don’t think is correct).
Armond Hill:
It is well documented that the Sonics gave up two 2nd round picks and cash to get Hill. This is how the trade is reported in the NBA Register, in the Hawks Media Guide, in the 2002-03 Sonics Media Guide, in the transactions column in the following day’s Globe, and in several other newspapers in the Google News Archive. b-r.com, however, mentions the picks but not the cash. As noted above in the discussion of the John Shumate trade, in my experience it is fairly common for descriptions of trades to omit “minor” elements of the trade, and b-r.com seems to do this more than most. I suspect that is what is happening here.
Greg Kelser:
Prior to doing my Globe research, I was unaware that the voided trade of Kelser to the Sonics had ever happened. (The NBA Register showed rescinded trades later on, in the ‘90s and ‘00s, but not in this era.) The Globe reported the trade in the transactions column its 12/17 edition. I also found additional newspapers in the Google News Archive reporting the trade in their 12/17 editions. This suggests that the trade happened on 12/16/80.
The trade being voided never appeared in the Globe transactions column, but I found two newspapers in the Google News Archive reporting it in their 12/18 editions (the Milwaukee Journal and the Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard), suggesting that this happened on 12/17. The Google News Archive also has two newspapers with an AP wire service report in their 12/19 editions on Kelser being subsequently placed on the IL which mentions Kelser failing his physical and the trade being voided on “Wednesday”, which would be 12/17 (the Milwaukee Journal again, and the Lewiston (Me.) Daily Sun).
Jacky Dorsey:
Dorsey initially joined the Sonics on 1/19/81 on a 10-day contract. This was reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (1/20) Globe, and is also in several 1/20 papers in the Google News Archive. This is also in pst.com (although it is the only transaction pst.com has concerning Dorsey’s stay with the Sonics).
While I can find no documentation of it, Dorsey must have signed a second 10-day deal about ten days after the first one, because he continues to appear in box scores beyond the point where the first 10-day deal would have expired.
On 2/9/81, the Sonics signed Dorsey to a longer-term contract. This was reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (2/10) Globe, and is also in several 2/10 papers in the Google News Archive. Most of these sources indicate that Dorsey was signed to a regular free agent contract running through the 1981-82 season, although a few, including the Globe, state that it was a contract for the remainder of the season. I am inclined to trust those indicating that it was a regular free agent contract running through the 1981-82 season. Their numbers exceed those reporting that it was for the remainder of the season, and assuming this is correct, those reporting the latter can be framed as inexact/incomplete more than outright wrong (if Dorsey signed a contract running through the 1981-82 season, a statement that he would be with the Sonics for the remainder of the 1980-81 season isn’t incorrect). One of the articles, from the Bangor (Me.) Daily News, goes so far as to provide the detail that Sonics officials expected Dorsey to be “in line” for a roster spot for the 1981-82 season, when NBA rosters were expected to expand back to 12 men. Dorsey was of local interest to Daily News readers because he had been playing for the Maine Lumberjacks of the CBA before the Sonics signed him. I have found a few articles confirming that Dorsey was in training camp with the Sonics in the fall of 1981, but was cut before the start of the season.
The NBA Register simply shows Dorsey signing outright with the Sonics on 1/19/81, with no mention of it being a 10-day deal or of any subsequent contracts. As we’ve discussed in previous installments in this series, the Register typically wrote things up that way whenever a player who initially joined a team on a 10-day deal stuck around for longer than that, and shouldn’t be read as inconsistent with what other sources show. b-r.com shows the same; they likely used the Register as their source.
GAMES STARTED INFO
MEDIA GUIDE
In writing this series of articles, I look for three things in team media guides to use as a source of information:
--There is typically a section with year-by-year historical statistics for each player on the team. These sections sometimes include games started totals.
--There is typically a section with an all-time player register for the team. These sections vary in their level of detail, but they sometimes include year-by-year statistics with games started totals, or information about the transactions in which the player was acquired by or departed from the team.
--There is typically a section with a historical list of transactions the team has been involved in. These lists are usually very detailed for recent years, but less so the further back you go, often only including transactions of major significance.
As far as I can see, the 2015-16 Thunder Media Guide has none of the above features. This is the first NBA team I’ve encountered whose media guide is set up this way. This may be a legacy of the franchise’s move from Seattle to Oklahoma City. If there was an agreement that the Sonics’ history would be left behind, so it could be picked up by a new team in the future, the Thunder may have decided not to include this type of historical information in the their media guide.
From a Google search, I found that the Thunder still have the Sonics Media Guide from the franchise’s last season in Seattle (2006-07) posted on their web site. Unfortunately, the “History” section, which would contain most of the information I’m looking for, is missing (it’s on the list, but it’s a dead link):
http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/media_guide_0607.html
From a further Google search, I discovered that the 2002-03 Sonics Media Guide is still posted on the NBA’s media web site. The History section is intact. While it does have a historical list of transactions, which I referred to in writing this article, as far as I can see there was no historical games started data anywhere in the guide:
http://www.nba.com/media/mediacentral/0203MG_SEA_07.pdf
The end result of all this: for games started data for the 1980-81 Sonics, we don’t have a media guide source, so we will need to rely solely on the TSN box scores.
TSN BOX SCORES
All but three of the TSN box scores for the 1980-81 Sonics appear to list the players in “starters first” F-F-C-G-G order. The three exceptions were games on 1/10/81, 1/25/81, and 3/13/81.
--In the 1/10/81 box score, the first five players look like the expected starters, but with center Jack Sikma in the fifth position rather than the third position.
--In the 1/25/81 box score, the first four names look like they could be in “starters first” order (Bailey, John Johnson, Sikma, Vinnie Johnson), but the fifth makes no sense at all (Awtrey at what would be a G slot). The sixth player, however, would make sense as a starting guard (Fred Brown). It’s possible that Awtrey and Brown are listed out of order.
---In the 3/13/81 box score, the first five players listed look like the expected starters, but with a couple out of order (Hanzlik is shown in the C slot, Sikma in a G slot).
For the game on 1/10, I am assuming the first five players listed in the box score were the starters, at their usual positions. Three of these players were in the midst of a lengthy stretch where the TSN box scores show them starting every other game (Bailey, Sikma, and Westphal), so there seems no reason to think they wouldn’t have started this game. Of the others, John Johnson is shown starting the previous game, but not the next one. Looking at the bigger picture, however, Johnson is shown starting every game of the season up to this point, did not play in the next two games, is shown coming off the bench in the two games after that, then is shown returning to the starting lineup. Against that backdrop, it would make sense that he started on 1/10; he likely didn’t start the next game because he got injured during or following the game 1/10. The final player is Hill. Hill is shown starting the previous seven games and the next two that followed, so it would make sense that he started on 1/10.
For the game on 1/25, I am assuming that Awtrey and Brown are listed out of order, and that the first four players plus Brown were the five starters. Each of these players except Brown is shown starting at least the three previous games, and is shown starting almost every other game for the rest of the season. Based on the TSN box scores, Brown didn’t start regularly around this time. But he is shown starting the previous game, so it is certainly plausible that he could have started the game on 1/25.
For the game on 3/13, I am assuming the first five players listed in the box score were the starters, at their usual positions. Four of the five players (John Johnson, James Bailey, Jack Sikma, Vinnie Johnson) were in the midst of a lengthy stretch where the TSN box scores show them starting every other game, so there seems no reason to think they wouldn’t have started this game. The fifth player is Bill Hanzlik. During this part of the season, that starting slot was switching back and forth a lot between Hanzlik and Armond Hill. But the TSN box scores show Hanzlik starting the previous seven games before this one, as well as the game that followed, so it makes sense that he would have started this game.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
From the TSN box scores, after making the assumptions discussed above, I am getting the following games started totals for the season:
Sikma 82
J. Johnson 77
Bailey 69
V. Johnson 65
Hanzlik 35
Westphal 26
Hill 20
Brown 16
Shelton 13
Walker 4
Donaldson 3
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 number of anomalies in the TSN boxes that I wish I had a media guide to square up with. Without media guide numbers to compare to, it’s hard to hold my games started numbers out as exact.