Detroit Bought Dick McGuire for a First-Round Pick
Detroit acquired Dick McGuire from New York for a 1958 first-round pick that became Mike Farmer. The package itself is well established, but the exact date is not. Basketball-Reference and RealGM place the trade on April 3, 1957, alongside the separate Hutchins/Tyra-for-Gallatin/Clifton/Atha transaction. Later Pistons media guides also use April 3. By contrast, a September 24, 1957 Associated Press report says Detroit had just obtained McGuire, and Pistons guides published closer to the period describe the acquisition as a September 1957 move. Pro Sports Transactions lists September 23.
McGuire Gave Detroit Three Productive Seasons
McGuire gave Detroit three productive final NBA seasons. He appeared in 69 games in 1957-58, 71 in 1958-59 and 68 in 1959-60, totaling 208 regular-season games and 5,840 minutes. He averaged 6.6 assists in his first Detroit season and 6.2 in the next, made the Western Conference All-Star team in both 1958 and 1959, and finished eleventh in MVP voting in 1958-59. He later became the Pistons' player-coach, so the acquisition also carried organizational value beyond the box score, although the trade grade here is based primarily on realized playing contribution.
New York Turned the Pick into Mike Farmer
The Knicks used the acquired first-round pick on Mike Farmer. Farmer played all 72 games as a rookie in 1958-59 and 67 more in 1959-60, then appeared in two New York games in 1960-61 before moving to Cincinnati. Across his first two Knicks seasons he logged 3,081 minutes, but his advanced production was modest: Basketball-Reference credits 0.1 win shares in 1958-59 and minus-0.1 in 1959-60. Farmer later remained an NBA player for several more seasons, but most of that later value came with Cincinnati and St. Louis rather than New York.
Two All-Star Seasons Give Detroit the Win
Detroit received the stronger realized return. McGuire provided 208 games, two All-Star selections and high-level playmaking over three seasons, while Farmer gave New York two full seasons of rotation minutes without approaching McGuire's impact. The Knicks did receive a young first-round player who stayed in the league, so this is not a failed asset conversion. The date conflict lowers confidence in the transaction chronology, not in the asset package or player outcomes.
Final Verdict
Pistons Win — Detroit A-, New York B-. Detroit acquired Dick McGuire from the New York Knicks for its 1958 first-round pick, later used at No. 3 on Mike Farmer. The transaction date is unusually conflicted across historical sources: contemporary September 24, 1957 reporting says Detroit had just obtained McGuire, early Pistons media guides place the move in September, while Basketball-Reference, RealGM and later Pistons guides index it to April 3. TradeVerdicts preserves the September 23 route date but flags the discrepancy rather than pretending the archive is unanimous. McGuire then played 208 games over three Detroit seasons and made the 1958 and 1959 All-Star teams.