Denver traded Jeff Congdon to the Utah Stars on September 19, 1970 for a second-round draft choice. Congdon gave Utah 38 games at 7.7 points and 4.1 assists per game before the Stars moved him to the New York Nets in January 1971. The draft-pick return is confirmed as second-round compensation, but the surviving transaction ledgers do not identify the year or eventual player with enough certainty to trace Denver's realized value. The trade therefore remains ungraded.
No separate canonical grade is recorded for Denver Nuggets, LOS Angeles Stars.
Basketball-Reference's Denver and Utah transaction logs agree that the Rockets sent Jeff Congdon to the Stars on September 19, 1970 for a draft choice. Pro Sports Transactions narrows that compensation to a second-round pick, but leaves the year and eventual selection unresolved. That distinction matters: the existence and round of the pick are supported, while assigning a specific drafted player would require a link the surviving ledgers do not establish.
Congdon became a useful guard for a strong Stars team. Basketball-Reference credits him with 38 Utah games in 1970-71, averaging 7.7 points, 4.1 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 25.9 minutes. Utah finished 57-27 and went on to win the ABA championship. Congdon did not stay through the playoff run, however. The Stars traded him to the New York Nets on January 7, 1971 for another draft choice and a player to be named later, so Utah's direct return from this September deal lasted only part of the regular season.
Denver's return cannot be evaluated responsibly from the current record. Pro Sports Transactions' 1971 ABA draft ledger shows multiple second-round picks changing hands and explicitly marks some chains as unknown. It does not connect the Congdon consideration to a named Denver selection. The Rockets' own second-round slot in the 1971 ABA draft produced Marv Roberts, but the available sources do not establish that the Utah pick acquired here became that selection. Treating Roberts, Roger Brown, Garry Nelson or another player as the outcome would turn an unresolved chain into a fabricated conclusion.
Utah clearly received some immediate basketball value: Congdon played regular rotation minutes for 38 games on the eventual ABA champions. Denver clearly received a second-round asset. What is missing is the step needed for a fair hindsight comparison—what Denver ultimately did with that specific pick. Congdon's later move to New York also limits how much long-term value can be assigned to Utah. With one side traceable for only part of a season and the other side's draft outcome unidentified, a winner or letter-grade comparison would imply more certainty than the evidence supports.
Insufficient Evidence. The transaction itself is verified, the second-round nature of Denver's compensation is supported, and Congdon's Utah production is measurable. The draft year and ultimate player outcome remain unresolved in the available ledgers, however, so Denver's realized return cannot be priced. This record stays intentionally ungraded until a primary or reliable transaction source closes that asset chain. Confidence is high that the trade occurred as described, but low for any value verdict because the decisive draft outcome is still unknown.