New York traded Jim Cleamons to Washington on December 4, 1979 for a 1981 third-round pick. Cleamons immediately became a useful Bullets guard, playing 57 games while averaging 7.8 points and 4.4 assists in 26.9 minutes. New York used the No. 57 pick on Frank Brickowski, but he spent the next three seasons overseas and never played an NBA regular-season game for the Knicks; Seattle later signed him as a free agent in 1984. Washington therefore received the only meaningful realized NBA value from the deal.
Basketball-Reference records New York trading Jim Cleamons to Washington on December 4, 1979 for a 1981 third-round pick. The Knicks later used that selection at No. 57 on Frank Brickowski.
Cleamons had appeared in 22 games for New York before the trade. After arriving in Washington, he played 57 games and logged 1,535 minutes. He averaged 7.8 points, 4.4 assists and 2.3 rebounds in 26.9 minutes. He did not start a regular-season game, but he was a substantial reserve guard and gave the Bullets a real rotation return for a future third-round selection.
New York kept the pick and drafted Brickowski in the third round of the 1981 draft. He then spent three seasons playing outside the NBA before making his league debut with Seattle in 1984-85. Seattle signed Brickowski as a free agent. The reviewed transaction records do not show New York converting his draft rights into another NBA asset, so his later 731-game NBA career cannot be credited to the Knicks side of this trade. For New York, the realized return was therefore a draft selection that produced zero Knicks regular-season appearances.
Washington received 57 games and more than 1,500 minutes from Cleamons during the same season it made the trade. New York received no on-court NBA value from Brickowski and no documented downstream return for his rights. Brickowski eventually became a long-tenured NBA player, but that future success came after Seattle signed him independently. Hindsight grading has to follow the value the original team actually realized.
Bullets Win, B+/D. Washington receives a B+ for acquiring a productive 57-game reserve guard at the cost of a third-round pick. New York receives a D because the No. 57 selection never produced a Knicks game or a documented NBA transaction return.