This is the 23nd and last 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:
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DALLAS MAVERICKS – PART I
SEASON OVERVIEW
The Mavericks were a first-year expansion team. They had a 15-67 record. They finished sixth and last in the Midwest Division, and had the worst record in the NBA. The Mavericks did not qualify for the playoffs.
The Mavericks used 21 different players for the season, ten above the minimum, and the most of any NBA team.
ROSTER AND TRANSACTIONS
In a practice common for expansion teams up through the early 1980s, the Mavericks were allowed to carry two additional players on their active roster into the early part of the regular season. As a result, they had 13 players on their opening night roster. The team was allowed to carry up to 13 players for the first month of the season, then needed to get down to the standard 11.
OPENING NIGHT ROSTER
Darrell Allums
Winford Boynes
Marty Byrnes
Austin Carr
Ralph Drollinger
Terry Duerod
Joe Hassett
Geoff Huston
Abdul Jeelani
Tom LaGarde
Jim Spanarkel
Richard Washington
Jerome Whitehead
Notable unsigned draft pick: Kiki Vandeweghe.
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.
10/28/80 – Placed Ralph Drollinger on the injured list; signed Scott Lloyd as a free agent.
10/30/80 – Traded Richard Washington and Jerome Whitehead to the Cavaliers for Bill Robinzine and two 1st round picks (1983 and 1986).
11/6/80 – Traded Austin Carr to the Bullets for future considerations.
11/15/80 – Waived Joe Hassett; signed Oliver Mack as a free agent.
12/1/80 – Waived Darrell Allums.
12/2/80 – Waived Terry Duerod; signed Brad Davis as a free agent; activated Ralph Drollinger from the injured list.
12/10/80 – Traded the draft rights to Kiki Vandeweghe and a 1986 1st round pick to the Nuggets for two 1st round picks (1981 and 1985).
1/2/81 – Placed Ralph Drollinger on the injured list; signed Monti Davis to a 10-day contract.
1/12/81 – Signed Stan Pietkiewicz to a 10-day contract.
1/21/81 – Signed Stan Pietkiewicz to a second 10-day contract.
1/28/81 – Signed Stan Pietkiewicz to a contract for the remainder of the season.
2/7/81 – Traded Geoff Huston and a 1983 3rd round pick to the Cavaliers for Chad Kinch and a 1985 1st round pick.
2/10/81 – Placed Abdul Jeelani on the injured list; signed Clarence Kea to a 10-day contract.
2/19/81 – Activated Abdul Jeelani from the injured list; waived Winford Boynes; signed Clarence Kea to a second 10-day contract.
3/2/81 – Signed Clarence Kea to a contract for the remainder of the season; announced the retirement of Ralph Drollinger.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
Carrying 13 players for the first month of the season:
Up until the 1980s, it was a common practice for NBA expansion teams to be allowed to carry a couple of extra players into the early part of the regular season. A check of the Google News Archive turns up several newspaper articles, covering final cuts around the NBA just before the start of the regular season, which state that the Mavericks were allowed to carry 13 players on their active roster for the first month of the season. A month into the season would have been approximately November 10. The Mavericks did not wait until the deadline to reduce the size of their roster. They dropped their active roster from 13 to 12 via the 10/30/80 trade with the Cavaliers in which they traded away two players while receiving only one player back. They got down to 11 by trading Austin Carr to the Bullets for future considerations on 11/6/80.
The Mavericks played eleven games with 13 players on their active roster, and two additional games with 12 players on their active roster. There are no TSN box scores which show them using thirteen players in a single game, but four show them using twelve: 10/11/80, 10/15/80, 10/21/80, and 10/29/80.
Injured list transactions:
10/28/80: Ralph Drollinger placed on IL. The Mavericks used the roster spot to sign Scott Lloyd. Both moves were reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (10/29) Globe, and in multiple 10/29 newspapers in the Google News Archive.
12/2/80: Drollinger activated. This was reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (12/3) Globe, and is also in multiple 12/3 newspapers in the Google News Archive. Drollinger filled the roster spot vacated when Darrell Allums was waived the previous day.
1/2/81: Drollinger placed on IL again. This was reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (1/3) Globe, and is also in multiple 1/3 newspapers in the Google News Archive. It is also in pst.com, likely sourced from a newspaper. The roster spot was used to sign Monti Davis to a 10-day contract.
2/10/81: The Mavericks signed Clarence Kea to a 10-day contract on 2/10/81. 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 Abdul Jeelani on the injured list. I have documentation that Jeelani was activated from the injured list on 2/19/81. Jeelani was absent from the five games preceding 2/19, and players who were placed on the injured list were required to miss a minimum of five games. The first game in that five-game stretch was on 2/10. Put all of that together, and Jeelani has to have been placed on the IL sometime between the end of the Mavericks’ game on 2/8 (he played in that game, so he couldn’t have been on the IL yet) and the start of their game on 2/10 (he has to have been on the IL at the time this game was played, to have met the five-game minimum). Most likely, it was done on 2/10, and Kea was signed at the same time.
2/19/81: Jeelani activated. This was reported in the transactions column in the following day’s (2/20) Globe, and is also in a couple of 2/20 newspapers in the Google News Archive. The Mavericks kept Kea, and made room for Jeelani by waiving Winford Boynes instead.
Austin Carr:
Most sources state that Carr was traded for “future considerations”, including contemporary media reports. b-r.com indicates that Carr was “sold”, however.
Joe Hassett/Oliver Mack:
Standard reference sources indicate that the Mavericks waived Hassett and signed Mack on 11/17/80. This date appears in the NBA Register, the Mavericks Media Guide, b-r.com, and pst.com. As is often the case, it’s possible that the NBA Register is really the only source here, and all of the others used the Register as their ultimate source.
The Globe, however, reported these moves in the transactions column in its 11/16 issue, suggesting that they actually happened on 11/15/80. A check of the Google News Archive turns up two additional papers reporting these in their 11/16 transactions columns, the Prescott (Ariz.) Courier and Lawrence (Kans.) Journal-World. The 11/16 Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News also has a brief blurb reporting on Mack’s signing, without mentioning Hassett. Mack was of regional interest to Star-News readers because he had played college basketball at East Carolina.
In addition to the 11/16 papers, the Google News Archive also has two papers reporting these moves in their 11/17 transactions columns, the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner and Sumter (S.C.) Daily Item. 11/16 was a Sunday, so it’s plausible that the transactions happened on 11/15, but these papers held over weekend transactions until their Monday edition. The Star-Banner in fact identifies its 11/17 transactions column as containing “weekend” transactions. In any event, being published in an 11/17 paper still suggests that these transactions happened earlier than the 11/17 date that appears in standard reference sources.
A check of the TSN box scores doesn’t help clarify things. The Mavericks played one game during the 11/15 – 11/17 period, which was on 11/16, but neither player appears in the box score. Hassett’s final appearance in a TSN box score for the Mavericks was on 11/11, while the first game Mack played for the Mavericks was on 11/21.
Since we have contemporary media sources reporting this in 11/16 papers, I think 11/15/80 is likely the correct date, and that is the date I am going with.
Kiki Vandeweghe trade:
On 12/10/80, the Mavericks traded the rights to unsigned first round pick Kiki Vandeweghe to the Nuggets, in a deal that also involved multiple future first round picks. The 12/10 date is confirmed by numerous media reports (including the transactions column in the following day’s Globe, and reports in a number of papers in the Google News Archive), both teams’ media guides, and pst.com. The NBA Guide reports the date as 12/3, however. This date also appears in b-r.com, which likely used the Register as its source.
It seems pretty clear to me that the 12/3 date is wrong. Where did it come from? “3” isn’t a logical typo for “10”. A Google News Archive search turns up a possible answer. Two different versions of an AP wire service story in 12/4/80 papers – the Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News and the Spokane (Wash.) Daily Chronicle – reported that the Mavericks had given the Nuggets permission to talk to Vandeweghe, in hopes of working out a deal. This presumably happened the previous day, on 12/3. The article is clear that “no trade has been consummated”, but maybe someone researching transactions for the NBA Register got this story got mixed up with reports of the later trade, leading to the date of the trade being shown as 12/3.
From media reports of the trade on 12/10, it is clear that Vandeweghe did not sign a contract until after the trade had been completed. His draft rights were traded, and he then signed a contract with the Nuggets.
10-day contracts:
The Mavericks signed Monti Davis to a 10-day contract on 1/2/81, placing Ralph Drollinger on the injured list to make room. This is well-documented in numerous sources. Davis was not retained when the 10-day contract expired on 1/12/81. Note that b-r.com shows Davis being “waived” on 1/12, but that isn’t really the right description. A player whose 10-day contract expires is not placed on waivers. He simply becomes a free agent, and can sign with any team. Both of the papers in the Google News Archive reporting on Stan Pietkiewicz’ initial signing (see the next paragraph) reported that Davis had been “cut”, which is more accurate, if less technical.
On 1/12/81, the Mavericks replaced Davis by signing Stan Pietkiewicz to a 10-day contract. Pietkiewicz was signed to a second 10-day contract on 1/21/81, then for the remainder of the season on 1/28/81. All three of these transactions appear in the Mavericks Media Guide, and in pst.com (though pst.com may have sourced these from the Mavericks Media Guide). None of these transactions appeared in the Globe transactions column. A search of the Google News Archive turned up two 1/13 papers with transactions columns that included Pietkiewicz signing his initial 10-day contract – the Bryan (Ohio) Times and the Ellensburg (Wash.) Daily Record – but nothing on his two subsequent contracts.
On 2/10/81, the Mavericks signed Clarence Kea to a 10-day contract. Kea was signed to a second 10-day contract on 2/19/81, then for the remainder of the season on 3/2/81. All three of these transactions appear in the Mavericks Media Guide, and in pst.com (though pst.com may have sourced these from the Mavericks Media Guide). The Globe transactions column had only the signing on 2/19, which it described as a 10-day contract, but didn’t specify as Kea’s second. There is also one paper in the Google News Archive, the 2/19 Prescott (Ariz.) Courier, with the same information as the Globe.
The NBA Register shows Pietkiewicz and Kea each signing with the Mavericks “as a free agent”, on 1/12/81 and 2/10/81, respectively, with no mention of these being 10-day deals 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 ending up sticking with the team for the remainder of the season. As a result, this shouldn’t be read as inconsistent with what other sources show. For Kea, b-r.com shows the same. They likely used the Register as their source.
b-r.com did not write up Pietkiewicz the same way as the Register. The only transaction they have for Pietkiewicz is his signing for the remainder of the season on 1/28/81. They don’t have his initial signing on 1/12 at all.
One additional note concerning b-r.com and Pietkiewicz, although it has nothing to do with 10-day contracts: It is well-documented from numerous sources that Pietkiewicz started the 1980-81 season with the Clippers, but was waived on 10/28/80. He was subsequently signed by the Mavericks in January, as described above. b-r.com shows Pietkiewicz being waived on 10/28/80 not by the Clippers, but by the Mavericks. This is obviously wrong, as Pietkiewicz was never with the Mavericks until later in the season. Whoever wrote up the transactions for b-r.com must have gotten the teams mixed up.
3rd round pick in Huston-Kinch trade:
On 2/7/81, the Mavericks traded Geoff Huston and a 3rd round pick to the Cavaliers for Chad Kinch and a 1985 1st round pick. Standard reference sources all agree that the 3rd round pick was in 1983, and that’s what actually ended up happening. If you look at the results of the 1983 draft, you’ll see that the Cavaliers had the Mavericks’ 3rd round pick that year. I also found a report on the trade in the Google News Archive, from the 2/9/81 Milwaukee Journal, indicating that the 3rd round pick was to be in 1983.
The Google News Archive has several newspapers with transactions columns, however, showing the 3rd round pick as a 1985 pick. (This trade did not appear in the Globe transactions column.) When I first encountered these, I wondered if the year of the pick was originally supposed to be 1985, then it was subsequently changed. But the one actual report on the trade in the Archive – as opposed to a transaction column – has it as a 1983 pick, as noted above. If the pick was originally supposed to be in 1985, how could that report be saying 1983, unless the change was made within a day or so of the trade? The 1981-82 NBA Register, published just a few months after the 1980-81 season ended, also shows the 3rd round pick as a 1983 pick.
I suspect that 1983 is and always was correct, and the 1985 date in those transactions columns may be a typo originating with the same wire service source, possibly a matter of erroneously listing both picks as 1985 when only the 1st round pick was supposed to be. Unless further evidence turns up suggesting that the pick was changed from 1985 to 1983, I’m assuming that it was always supposed to be in 1983.
Ralph Drollinger retirement:
Drollinger announced his retirement on 3/2/81. This is reported in numerous sources, including the Mavericks Media Guide, b-r.com, pst.com, the transactions column in the following day’s (3/3) Globe, and several other 3/3 newspapers in the Google News Archive. Drollinger was on the injured list at the time, and hadn’t actually appeared in a game since October. Newspaper articles indicate that Drollinger was potentially facing knee surgery, but decided to retire rather than proceed with the surgery. Drollinger was an NBA rookie, but this was actually his fifth season out of college (he had played for the Athletes In Action amateur team during the interim), so he was 28 years old. Given his age, and that he hadn’t really yet established himself in the NBA to begin with, the potential upside from the surgery just didn’t seem worth it, and Drollinger elected to move on to life after basketball.
Drollinger is the second player we’ve encountered who announced his retirement with the 1980-81 season in progress. The first was Jo Jo White. As with White, Drollinger’s retirement isn’t in the NBA Register, which may lead the reader to believe that Drollinger was with the Mavericks all season. As noted in our discussion of White, the explanation is that the Register didn’t typically report player retirements, although I’m aware of a few exceptions.
Why didn’t the Register typically report player retirements? It may be because, from a transaction standpoint, exactly what happens when a player announces his retirement is a bit mysterious. The NBA has something called the voluntarily retired list, but movement of players on and off of this list isn’t typically publicly reported, and not every player who retires is necessarily placed on it. Reports of Drollinger’s retirement published in the 3/3/81 Milwaukee Sentinel and Eugene (Ore.) Register-Guard state, “A mutually satisfactory settlement of [Drollinger’s] contract was negotiated”, suggesting that the team bought out his contract. When a team buys out a player’s contract, the player is typically placed on waivers, but no such transaction is documented in this case. Based on public reports, all we can say is that Drollinger announced his retirement on 3/2/81.
GAMES STARTED INFO
MEDIA GUIDE
The 2015-16 Mavericks Media Guide has regular season games started stats for the franchise’s entire history. For 1980-81, it shows the following:
LaGarde 82
Lloyd 70
Mack 57
Huston 56
Spanarkel 49
Davis 26
Byrnes 18
Boynes 17
Jeelani 12
Duerod 8
Washington 7
Whitehead 4
Allums 3
Robinzine 1
TSN BOX SCORES
All but three of the TSN box scores for the 1980-81 Mavericks appear to list the players in “starters first” F-F-C-G-G order. The three exceptions were games on 2/14/81, 2/27/81 and 3/15/81. In all three cases, the first five players listed look like the regular starters, but with center Scott Lloyd in the fifth position rather than the expected third position. If we assume the first five players listed in these box scores were in fact the starters, at their usual positions, the games started totals for all players are in agreement with those in the Mavericks Media Guide, except for the discrepancy noted below.
NOTES/DISCREPANCIES
After making the above assumptions, there is one discrepancy between the Mavericks Media Guide and the TSN boxes, involving one game and two players. The Media Guide indicates that Geoff Huston started 56 games, and Jim Spanarkel 49. The TSN boxes suggest that Huston started 55 games, and Spanarkel 50. The source of the discrepancy is the game on 10/24/80. One would have expected Huston to start this game, but the TSN box score lists Spanarkel in the fifth position (starting guard), and Huston in the sixth position (first player off the bench).
In this series of articles, I am assuming that the games started numbers in team media guides are correct, and I have used the numbers from the Mavericks Media Guide in Part II below. In this case, I think the Media Guide is likely correct anyway. There’s no obvious reason why Spanarkel would have started that game in place of Huston. The TSN box scores show Huston starting every other game he played for the Mavericks, and do not show Spanarkel starting any other games at guard. Given the location of each player’s name in the box score, it’s very possible that the two are simply listed out of order.