Atlanta traded Bill Willoughby to Buffalo on September 13, 1977 for a 1978 second-round pick. Willoughby gave the Braves 56 regular-season games that year, averaging 6.7 points and 3.9 rebounds in 19.3 minutes. Atlanta did not keep the pick until the draft. On October 5, 1977, the Hawks sent it to Portland for rookie guard Rich Laurel. Atlanta released Laurel on November 28 before he appeared in an NBA game for the Hawks; Milwaukee later signed him, and he played only 10 NBA games. Portland kept the second-rounder and used it at No. 24 on Keith Herron, whose NBA career lasted 124 games, but that production belongs to Portland and later teams rather than Atlanta because the Hawks had already moved the asset. Buffalo therefore received the only meaningful direct on-court value from the original trade, while Atlanta’s pick briefly functioned as trade currency but produced no Hawks games.
Buffalo and Atlanta both record the September 13, 1977 transaction the same way: the Braves acquired Bill Willoughby and the Hawks received Buffalo's 1978 second-round pick. The league ledger matches those team records. The pick eventually became No. 24 in the 1978 draft and was used on Keith Herron, but Atlanta did not make that selection. That downstream distinction is the key to grading this review accurately.
Willoughby was only 20 years old during the 1977-78 season and immediately entered Buffalo's rotation. He played 56 games for the Braves, averaging 19.3 minutes, 6.7 points and 3.9 rebounds. Basketball-Reference lists 1,079 total minutes, 376 points and 219 rebounds. Those numbers are modest, but they are real first-season value from a second-round-pick acquisition. Buffalo was in the middle of a major roster overhaul and received a young forward who could absorb meaningful minutes immediately. The franchise moved to San Diego after the season, and Willoughby did not play in 1978-79 after being waived. This review therefore does not inflate the Buffalo return into a long multi-season run. The realized Braves portion is the 56-game 1977-78 season.
On October 5, less than a month after the original trade, Atlanta sent Buffalo's 1978 second-round pick to Portland for Rich Laurel. Portland's transaction ledger and Harry Glickman's executive record identify the same pick, later used at No. 24 on Herron. That means the Hawks did extract market value from the asset before draft night. The original second-rounder was not wasted or forgotten. The problem is what Atlanta received for it. Laurel never played a regular-season game for the Hawks. Atlanta released him on November 28, 1977. Milwaukee signed him on December 2, and his entire NBA career consisted of 10 games for the Bucks.
Portland retained the pick and selected Herron at No. 24 in 1978. Herron eventually played 124 NBA games over three seasons. That outcome confirms the pick itself had legitimate draft value, but TradeVerdicts does not credit Herron's production back to Atlanta because the Hawks had traded the pick away for Laurel. The correct Atlanta outcome is the Laurel conversion, not Herron's later career.
Braves Edge, B-/D+. Buffalo receives a B- because Willoughby supplied 56 games and useful rotation minutes at age 20. Atlanta receives a D+ because the second-round pick had real trade value, but the Hawks converted it into Laurel and released him before he played a game for them. The gap is meaningful without being enormous: Buffalo did not acquire a long-term star, but it received far more realized team-specific value than Atlanta ultimately produced from the asset cycle. Confidence is high.