Atlanta acquired Tony Robertson from the Lakers on October 17, 1977 for a 1979 fourth-round pick that became No. 79 Ray White. Robertson gave the Hawks 63 regular-season games as a rookie, averaging 5.9 points, 1.6 assists and 1.2 steals in 14.7 minutes. Atlanta waived him in September 1978, and he later signed with Golden State, so there was no downstream Hawks return after that season. The Lakers held the pick until the 1979 draft and selected White, but White never appeared in an NBA regular-season game. The transaction therefore produced modest but real rotation value for Atlanta and no realized NBA playing value for Los Angeles. Because the outgoing asset was only a future fourth-round pick, the Hawks did not sacrifice premium draft capital to get that season of production. The source-backed record favors Atlanta clearly, even though Robertson's tenure was short and the trade remained low stakes.
Atlanta's and Los Angeles' 1977-78 transaction ledgers agree on the October 17, 1977 exchange: the Hawks sent a 1979 fourth-round pick to the Lakers for Tony Robertson. The pick later became No. 79 overall and Los Angeles used it on Ray White. There is no cash component, condition or additional player in the cited ledgers. This review therefore treats this as a straightforward player-for-future-fourth transaction.
Robertson played 63 regular-season games for the Hawks in 1977-78. He averaged 5.9 points, 1.6 assists and 1.2 steals in 14.7 minutes while shooting 44.1 percent from the field. That is not star-level production, but it is meaningful rotation value for a fourth-round pick two years into the future. He logged 929 minutes, scored 373 points and collected 74 steals for a 41-win Atlanta team that reached the playoffs. The Hawks did not turn Robertson into another asset. Their 1978-79 transaction ledger shows that he was waived on September 22, 1978. Golden State later signed him as a free agent in February 1979, so his later Warriors games do not belong to Atlanta's realized return.
Los Angeles held Atlanta's fourth-rounder through the 1979 draft and selected Ray White at No. 79 overall. White appears in the draft record but never logged an NBA regular-season game. That result gives the Lakers no realized playing value from the pick itself. This review does not penalize Los Angeles for failing to turn a late fourth-rounder into a long-term contributor; most selections in that range were uncertain. But retrospective grading has to count what the asset actually became, and in this case it did not produce NBA minutes.
The trade matters because the Hawks converted a distant late-round pick into 63 games of immediate depth. There was no premium first-round value at risk, and the pick did not later become a productive NBA player. Los Angeles, meanwhile, did create a legitimate future draft asset out of a player it was willing to move. The process was rational even though the eventual selection produced no NBA return.
Hawks Win, B/D+. Atlanta receives a B because Robertson supplied 63 games and nearly 1,000 minutes of useful rookie-season depth for a low-value future pick. Los Angeles receives a D+ because the acquired fourth-rounder did reach the draft and become White, but White never appeared in an NBA regular-season game. This is a clear Atlanta win on realized value without being a major franchise-changing transaction. Confidence is high.