15 days have passed since the opening night of the 1987-1988 DASL season. The league entered the new season after an offseason of big moves, stars moving teams, GMs starting rivalries, and the like. Training camps shifted ratings and valuations across the league, but let’s take a glance at which players on each team either slacked off in the offseason or aren’t meshing well with their teammates, or may have found their place and role in a new squad / or with new teammates. (With some unwanted commentary as always)
Stats are organized as such: PPG/RPG/APG/SPG/BPG - FG%/FT%/3PT%
Byron Scott - Boston Celtics
1986 Stats: 22.6/5.3/4.4/2.0/0.2 - 45.7%/86.5%/36.6%
1987 Stats: 15.7/4.8/3.6/1.8/0.2 - 39.1%/87.1%/37.8%
Maybe he signed his contract extension then just cruised during the offseason. There seems to be some turmoil over in Boston, with the GM recently coming out in a press conference for a recent trade stating that he “hates his team”. Dennis Johnson, newly signed free agent, came out with claims that he was “mislead” and that he was promised a “featured role” in the offense as he got shipped out after a couple games with the team. After the first 10 days of the season where Byron Scott seemed disinterested, shooting about 6% FG lower and having his lowest scoring totals since his rookie season, the Celtics temporarily even considered benching him, before deciding to nix the Dennis Johnson expimernet in favor of big man Kevin McHale.
Joe Barry Carroll - Miami Heat
1986 Stats: 20.2/11.2/2.6/1.1/4.1 - 43.7%/74.5%/0%
1987 Stats: 27.5/12.5/3.0/1.8/4.4 - 45.2%/70.8%/0%
There were some rumors flying around in this off-season that JBC was unhappy with the lack of moves made by the HeatGM to field a competitive team. JBC continues to look at Larry Bird in disgust as he doesn’t even consider Bird’s championship to be legitimate. This season he finally decided he was going to take the mantle and has upped his game scoring about 7 more points per game and upping his already ridiculous rebounding numbers and defensive stats more efficiently.
Ralph Sampson - New Jersey Nets
1986 Stats: 20.2/10.3/2.5/1.5/2.9 - 48.1%/70.7%/0%
1987 Stats: 28.8/11.0/3.5/1.0/2.2 - 50.4%/74.3%/0%
DASL’s version of Shaq and Kobe (without the dynasty) broke up this off-season, with Sampson coming out and saying that he’s had enough about not being recognized as the most valuable player on his team. His own GM posted a trade value chart and showed Michael Jordan averaging less than 20 points per a game as higher value than himself. Sampson came out with a vengeance to start the season, determined to show the league that he is ready to take the mantle of “the next Moses Malone”.
Jack Sikma - New York Knicks
1986 Stats: 16.2/10.5/2.6/1.5/1.4 - 44.5%/79.0%/0%
1987 Stats: 12.7/10.4/2.0/1.1/1.6 - 37.1%/94.1%/0%
Sikma came to New York last season and led them to the Finals, where he ultimately was one game away from winning his championship. Maybe he considers that to be enough of an achievement, or he misses David Greenwood, or he doesn’t understand why pipsqueak Danny Young has to take so many 3’s, but he came into this season out of shape, and seemingly unmotivated. It’s possible that Sikma misses a playmaker on the team after the Knicks lost MRR to free agency.
Chris Mullin - Atlanta Hawks
1986 Stats: 9.2/3.3/1.4/0.9/0.1 - 41.4%/87.3%/33.6%
1987 Stats: 15.7/6.4/3.0/1.2/0.1 - 42.4%/84.6%/34.0%
Still not the most efficient of scorers, but almost doubly all of his counting stats, Chris Mullin has finally taken the step forward that the Hawks GM has been waiting for for some time. Sources say that the main motivator Chris Mullin to make such a big jump was the fact that he was being compared to the biggest bust in DASL history, Detlef Schrempf. To this day, Mullin still can’t believe that he was drafted after that scrub - and he’ll use every season from here on out to prove the league (or Grizzlies GM) wrong.
Mike Gminski - Indiana Pacers
1986 Stats: 17.9/8.9/1.3/1.6/1.1 - 43.3%/73.8%/0.0%
1987 Stats: 20.0/8.8/0.9/1.8/0.9 - 50.4%/75.0%/0.0%
Pretty under-the-radar signing from the Pacers last season, jumping his field goal percentage up by 7% to begin the 1987 season. He could be finally happy that he has some actual players that he recognizes on the court this year. Last year, Gminski came out in a interview saying that for the majority of the roster after Phil Ford left the team, he had to google them because he had never heard of them before. The big man is happier now with fellow frontcourt mate David Robinson, and his extra motivation is showing up in his play.
Dennis Rodman - Milwaukee Bucks
1986 Stats: 7.3/7.7/1.2/0.9/1.2 - 46.0%/61.1%/0.0%
1987 Stats: 5.0/8.4/1.0/1.0/1.0 - 35.3%/57.1%/0.0%
When asked about his performances to start the season, Rodman started becoming extremely aggressive to the interview so not much is known about his current mental state. Sources say that he’s been going back and forth to North Korea during the off-season, which may explain why he’s been struggling a bit more to begin this season.
Lafayette “Fat” Lever - Dallas Mavericks
1986 Stats: 11.2/5.2/8.2/2.1/0.1 - 46.5%/84.5%/18.0%
1987 Stats: 8.3/3.8/8.6/2.3/0.3 - 41.5%/91.7%/33.3%
Starting off the season shooting 5% from the field below what he was able to produce last season, Lafayette “Fat” Lever seems to be suffering from a hangover after what he believes should have been a championship season from the Mavericks last season. When asked about his performance in an interview, he explains that Patrick Ewing came to him in the showers after losing their playoff series against the Blazers and told him that he’s going to be taken the mantle next season and that “Fat” Lever’s only job is to get him the ball and get out of the way.
Roberto Brunamonti - Utah Jazz
1986 Stats: 20.9/5.3/3.2/2.9/0.5 - 48.1%/94.2%/42.8%
1987 Stats: 21.1/5.8/3.3/4.8/0.3 - 48.2%/92.3%/47.4%
While most of his other stats are remaining the same, Brunamonti is averaging a ridiculous 4.8 steals per game in the first 12 games of the season for the Utah Jazz. Sources are saying that the Portland Trailblazers GM was found late at night in the office staring at photos of Roberto. Brunamonti says beyond the fact that the entire league said that Darrell Griffith was better than him, he’s more afraid that his GM will come and try to fight him if he didn’t lead the Jazz past where they got last season.
Larry Smith - Los Angeles Lakers
1986 Stats: 13.8/11.9/2.2/0.8/1.4 - 42.4%/63.4%/0.0%
1987 Stats: 14.8/12.0/2.3/1.4/1.3 - 39.7%/61.1%/0.0%
Honestly, Larry Smith has just been good ol’ Larry Smith. He took a flier from 20-years-into-the-future robot Kawhi Leonard and took the adage of “board man gets paid” to heart. He’s performing fairly normally, but he deserved a spot in this article for his whopping $110M over 5 year contract
Michael Jordan - Portland Trailblazers
1986 Stats: 18.8/6.0/3.8/2.4/0.2 - 46.9%/86.2%/38.7%
1987 Stats: 27.7/5.6/3.2/2.8/0.3 - 44.2%/89.4%/36.7%
And he took it personally.
Mychal Thompson - Seattle SuperSonics
1986 Stats: 13.6/10.7/3.8/1.2/2.2 - 43.5%/61.7%/0.0%
1987 Stats: 9.5/6.5/3.2/2.0/2.5 - 38.0%/70.4%/0.0%
Mychal Thompson opened his eyes and there he was. Sitting on the opposite post watching the great Moses Malone go to work and drop 40/20 on his opponents. All he had to do was rebound the ball and get the ball to a little dude to try and pass to Moses. He had won the championship. Then he woke up, realized it was a dream, he had gotten traded to the Sonics last season, and started weeping in his bed wistfully thinking of the good teams that had passed him by.
Drazen Petrovic - Vancouver Grizzlies
1986 Stats: 11.6/5.7/3.3/1.5/0.7 - 47.1%/67.3%/43.0%
1987 Stats: 21.3/7.7/2.9/2.1/0.8 - 53.2%/67.3%/38.0%
Last season was a bit of a turmoil for the #1 overall pick. Everyone was saying Daughtery was better than him, he was being benched back and forth for second rounder Ken Barlow. Petrovic took this offseason to really work on his game and now he’s ready to be the 1st option. Even though Micheal Ray Richardson keeps on turning over the ball, Petrovic is still happier now being able to shoot whenever he wants.
