The Rights Trade
Basketball-Reference's Denver, Indiana and league transaction pages agree that the Pacers traded Mike Green to the Denver Rockets on August 7, 1973 for a draft choice. Denver also signed Green that day. Indiana had selected him in the ABA's 1973 special-circumstance draft, while Seattle had taken him fourth overall in the NBA draft. The reviewed ABA transaction ledgers do not identify the year, round or eventual player attached to Denver's outgoing pick, so this archive preserves the pick as verified but unresolved rather than inventing a draft lineage.
Immediate Denver Production
Green gave Denver substantial value from the start. As a rookie in 1973-74 he played 79 games, averaging 11.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 20.9 minutes. Basketball-Reference credits him with 904 points, 584 rebounds and 126 blocks. Remember the ABA also notes that Green was named to the ABA All-Rookie Team. A draft-choice purchase of rights producing a full rookie season at that level is already a favorable realized return even before the second year is considered.
All-Star Growth in 1974-75
Green's second Denver season raised the value considerably. He appeared in 81 games for the renamed Nuggets and averaged 17.4 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 31.6 minutes while shooting 54.2 percent from the field. He made the ABA All-Star team as Denver went 65-19, the best record in the Western Division. Across his two Denver seasons, Green supplied 160 regular-season games and developed from a rookie rotation center into one of the club's more productive frontcourt players.
The David Thompson Trade
Denver then converted Green into part of a much larger asset package. On July 14, 1975, the Nuggets traded Mack Calvin, Mike Green and Jan van Breda Kolff to Virginia for George Irvine and David Thompson. Thompson had been drafted by the Squires but signed with Denver and immediately became the 1975-76 ABA Rookie of the Year and a franchise-defining star. Green alone did not purchase Thompson; Calvin and van Breda Kolff were meaningful co-assets. Still, Green's inclusion in that transaction demonstrates that the 1973 rights acquisition retained major downstream trade value after two productive seasons.
Indiana's Unresolved Pick
Indiana's side is much harder to grade because the draft choice cannot be traced in the reviewed sources. The Pacers' 1973-74 transaction page records the trade but does not identify the pick year or player, and the league transaction log is equally general. Specialist historical summaries note that Indiana had drafted Green and that he signed with Denver, but they do not supply a later draft conversion. Without a verified outcome, the archive cannot credit the Pacers with a player who may or may not have resulted from the pick.
Hindsight Comparison
The asymmetry is therefore unusually large. Denver received 160 games, an All-Star season and a player who remained valuable enough to be part of the Thompson acquisition. Indiana received a real draft asset, but no reviewed source connects it to a realized player, another trade or cash return. That does not mean the pick had no value at the time; it means the surviving source trail does not support a concrete hindsight return comparable with Green's documented production.
Final Verdict
Nuggets Win, A-/D+. Denver receives an A- because Green supplied 160 games, made the 1975 ABA All-Star team and later became part of the package that brought David Thompson's rights to Denver. The grade stops short of A+ because Green shared that downstream package with Calvin and van Breda Kolff and did not become the sole source of Thompson's value. Indiana receives a D+ because it did receive a draft choice, but the year, round and eventual outcome remain unresolved in the reviewed record. Confidence is high on Green's acquisition, production and downstream trade, with low confidence only on the Pacers' untraced pick. The verdict reflects only verified transaction terms and realized team value.