Atlanta traded Ron Behagen to Houston on December 16, 1977 for the Rockets' 1978 and 1979 second-round picks. Six days later, Houston flipped Behagen to Indiana for Alonzo Bradley, so the Rockets received only three Behagen games but converted him into a player who appeared in 99 regular-season games for Houston across three seasons. Atlanta used the 1978 pick at No. 25 on Rick Wilson, who played 66 Hawks games over two seasons, mostly in a reserve role. The 1979 pick became No. 38 Larry Wilson, whose draft record shows no NBA career totals. The original legacy verdict leaned Atlanta because two picks looked deeper than one veteran, but realized team-specific value points the other way: Houston turned Behagen directly into Bradley, while Atlanta's two selections produced one limited rotation player and one non-NBA outcome. The Rockets receive the modest edge.
Atlanta, Houston and the league transaction ledgers all record the December 16, 1977 transaction identically: the Hawks sent Ron Behagen to the Rockets for Houston's 1978 and 1979 second-round picks. Those picks later became No. 25 Rick Wilson in 1978 and No. 38 Larry Wilson in 1979. The package itself is clean, with no cash, conditions or additional players to resolve.
Behagen played only three games for Houston. Basketball-Reference lists him at 4.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in 11.0 minutes per game during that tiny Rockets sample. If the evaluation stopped there, Houston would have little to show for two second-round picks. It does not stop there. On December 22, only six days after acquiring Behagen, the Rockets traded him to Indiana for Alonzo Bradley. Because Behagen was the only Houston asset in that second trade, Bradley is a direct downstream return from the original Atlanta transaction rather than an attribution shared with another outgoing player or pick.
Bradley played 43 games for Houston in 1977-78 and averaged 7.0 points in 18.6 minutes. He followed with 34 games in 1978-79 and 22 in 1979-80. That is 99 regular-season Rockets games across three seasons. His role declined after the first year, but Houston still transformed six days of Behagen ownership into a multi-season roster piece. Bradley remained with the Rockets until Dallas selected him in the 1980 expansion draft.
The first Hawks pick landed at No. 25 in 1978. Atlanta selected Rick Wilson, who played 61 games as a rookie and five more in 1979-80. He averaged 3.0 points in 9.7 minutes during his first season and finished with 66 Atlanta games across two years. That is useful second-round return, but it remained a small reserve role. Wilson did not become a long-term Hawks rotation fixture or a major downstream transaction asset. The second pick landed at No. 38 in 1979 and became Larry Wilson out of Nicholls State. The 1979 draft ledger shows no NBA career totals for him. This review therefore records the pick as a documented draft conversion with no realized NBA playing return.
Two second-round selections can look stronger than a short-term veteran acquisition when the trade is viewed only at transaction time. The actual branches reverse that impression. Atlanta's picks produced 66 NBA games from Rick Wilson and no NBA career line from Larry Wilson. Houston got only three Behagen games, but immediately converted him one-for-one into Bradley and received 99 games over three seasons.
Rockets Edge, B/C+. Houston receives a B because Behagen was efficiently recycled into Bradley, extending the asset into 99 Rockets games. Atlanta receives a C+ because Rick Wilson reached the NBA and supplied 66 reserve games, but the second pick produced no NBA playing value. The difference is not large enough for a dominant grade gap, yet Houston's direct downstream conversion clearly beats the realized output of the two Atlanta selections. Confidence is high.