The Pick Exchange Is Confirmed, and the Cash Comes From a Separate Ledger
Chicago, Buffalo and the league transaction logs all agree on the June 10, 1977 pick swap. The Bulls sent the second-round pick that became No. 24 Larry Johnson to the Braves and received the first-round pick that became No. 13 Tate Armstrong.
Those Basketball-Reference ledgers do not list cash. Pro Sports Transactions' 1977 draft-pick ledger adds the financial term, recording that Chicago also sent $150,000 to Buffalo. This review preserves that source distinction instead of presenting the cash as though every ledger independently reported it.
Armstrong Gave Chicago Two Seasons of Direct Production
Chicago used the No. 13 pick on Armstrong. He played 66 games as a rookie in 1977-78, averaging 4.3 points in 10.8 minutes. He returned for 26 games in 1978-79. Across his two Bulls seasons, Armstrong appeared in 92 regular-season games, logged 975 minutes, scored 350 points and handed out 105 assists.
That is modest first-round production, but it is still substantially more on-court value than Buffalo received from the player attached to the No. 24 pick.
Armstrong Also Retained Some Downstream Value
Chicago later used Armstrong in a veteran-free-agent compensation transaction. In 1979 the Bulls signed Coby Dietrick from San Antonio and sent Armstrong plus cash to the Spurs as compensation. Basketball-Reference and the Bulls' own historical transaction record both preserve that exchange.
Dietrick then became a useful Chicago rotation big. He played 79 games in 1979-80, 82 in 1980-81 and 74 in 1981-82, for 235 regular-season games across three Bulls seasons. He scored 1,138 points and grabbed 816 rebounds during that span.
This review does not assign the entire Dietrick return to Armstrong because the compensation package also included cash. The later transaction still demonstrates that Armstrong retained enough value to function as a named component in acquiring a veteran who gave Chicago three seasons.
Buffalo's No. 24 Pick Produced Almost Nothing
The Braves used the incoming second-round pick on Larry Johnson, the Kentucky guard born in 1954. His player ledger records only four NBA regular-season games, all for Buffalo in 1977-78. He played 38 total minutes, scored six points and was waived twice during the season.
Johnson's transaction history also confirms the exact pick chain. Buffalo had originally sent this future second-round pick to Chicago in 1974, then reacquired it in the Armstrong trade and drafted Johnson at No. 24. There was no meaningful later NBA player value from the pick.
The $150,000 Keeps Buffalo's Grade From the Bottom
Buffalo did receive a real financial asset. The $150,000 should not be erased simply because the player outcome failed. At the same time, there is no source-supported basketball conversion that lets this review trace that cash into another player or pick. It therefore counts as financial value without inventing a downstream roster branch.
Final Verdict
Bulls Win, B+/D+. Chicago receives a B+ because No. 13 became 92 Armstrong games and Armstrong later remained useful in a compensation package that helped bring Dietrick, who played 235 Bulls games. Buffalo receives a D+ because No. 24 produced only four Johnson games, with the documented $150,000 providing the main remaining value. The gap is meaningful, but Chicago did not receive a star and the later Dietrick branch was not created by Armstrong alone. Confidence is high.