Detroit moved from the No. 5 pick to No. 4 in the 1979 draft, sending Milwaukee the selection used on Sidney Moncrief plus cash and taking Greg Kelser. Moncrief became a Hall of Famer, played 695 regular-season games for the Bucks, made five All-Star teams, earned five All-NBA and five All-Defensive selections, and won the league's first two Defensive Player of the Year awards. Kelser played 75 games for Detroit before the Pistons traded him straight up to Seattle for Vinnie Johnson. Johnson then played 798 games for Detroit and became a key reserve on the 1989 and 1990 championship teams. Milwaukee still gets the hindsight edge, but Detroit's Kelser branch produced major downstream value.
Detroit's transaction record shows the Pistons sending the 1979 first-round pick later used on Sidney Moncrief to Milwaukee for the No. 4 pick later used on Greg Kelser. Detroit's source package also records cash going to the Bucks.
Milwaukee used the No. 5 pick on Moncrief and kept him for ten seasons. He played 695 regular-season games for the Bucks, fourth-most in franchise history at the current checkpoint. The peak value was elite. Moncrief made five All-Star teams, five All-NBA teams and five All-Defensive teams. He also won Defensive Player of the Year in both 1982-83 and 1983-84 and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. That is the kind of outcome teams hope for when they acquire a premium lottery-level pick: long tenure, two-way star production and repeated postseason relevance.
Kelser played 50 games as a rookie and 25 more in 1980-81. Across those 75 Pistons games, he scored 1,017 points and provided useful wing production, including 14.2 points per game as a rookie. Knee trouble interrupted his second season and limited the direct Detroit return. On November 23, 1981, the Pistons traded Kelser to Seattle for Vinnie Johnson.
That follow-up trade substantially changes Detroit's side of the ledger. Johnson played 798 regular-season games for the Pistons, fourth-most in franchise history at the current checkpoint, and became one of the team's most important bench scorers. Johnson was part of Detroit's back-to-back championship teams in 1989 and 1990. Basketball-Reference credits him with two NBA titles, and his long Pistons tenure means Kelser's downstream value was far greater than Kelser's own 75 games. This is direct attribution: Detroit traded Kelser alone for Johnson, so Johnson's Pistons value legitimately belongs to the Kelser branch.
Detroit's outcome was excellent once Johnson is included. The Pistons turned the No. 4 selection into Kelser and then directly into an 798-game championship contributor. Milwaukee still received the better individual cornerstone. Moncrief became a Hall of Famer and one of the best two-way guards of his era, with 695 Bucks games and a long list of major honors. The cash amount is not documented in the reviewed sources, so it is not assigned independent value.
Bucks Win, A+/A. Milwaukee receives an A+ for landing Moncrief, a Hall of Fame guard with 695 Bucks games, five All-Star selections and two Defensive Player of the Year awards. Detroit receives an A because Kelser later became Vinnie Johnson in a direct one-for-one trade, producing 798 Pistons games and two championship seasons.