Phoenix traded Gail Goodrich to the Lakers for Mel Counts on May 20, 1970. Goodrich then played 466 regular-season games across six Lakers seasons, made four All-Star teams, earned 1974 All-NBA First Team honors and led Los Angeles in scoring on the 1972 championship team. Counts was not an empty return: he played 156 Suns games over two seasons, averaged 11.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in his first year, and Phoenix later traded him for a second-round pick and cash. The gap is enormous, but the Suns received more value than the legacy F suggested.
Phoenix's official media guide and the Lakers' transaction history record the deal directly: on May 20, 1970, the Suns acquired Mel Counts from Los Angeles for Gail Goodrich. Goodrich had been Phoenix's leading backcourt star after the 1968 expansion draft, averaging 23.8 points as an All-Star in the franchise's first season and 20.0 points with 7.5 assists in 1969-70. The trade sent him back to the franchise that had originally drafted him in 1965.
Goodrich became a championship-level lead scorer. The Lakers' official alumni profile credits him with six more Los Angeles seasons after the trade, four consecutive team scoring titles from 1971 through 1975, All-Star selections in 1972, 1973, 1974 and 1975, and All-NBA First Team in 1974. He played 466 regular-season games in that second Lakers stint. His peak came during the 1971-72 championship season, when he averaged 25.9 points in all 82 games and led the club in scoring as Los Angeles won 69 games, set the 33-game winning-streak record and captured the title. He stayed above 19 points per game in every season of the stint and later had No. 25 retired by the Lakers. That is elite sustained value from a one-for-one acquisition.
Counts gave the Suns two useful seasons rather than disappearing immediately. He played 80 games in 1970-71, averaging 11.0 points and 6.3 rebounds in 20.9 minutes, then appeared in 76 games in 1971-72 at 5.2 points and 3.4 rebounds in a reduced role. Phoenix therefore received 156 regular-season games from Counts. In October 1972, the Suns preserved a little more value by sending Counts to Philadelphia for a 1973 second-round pick and cash; that pick became No. 33 Gary Melchionni. The downstream pick was modest, but it means the Phoenix side included both two seasons of frontcourt depth and a small exit return.
The Lakers win overwhelmingly. Goodrich supplied six seasons, four post-trade All-Star selections, an All-NBA First Team season and championship-leading scoring. That supports an A+ grade. Phoenix cannot be graded as if Counts produced nothing: 156 games, a double-digit scoring first season and a later second-round return are legitimate assets. A C+ captures useful but ordinary value that was nowhere near Goodrich's Hall of Fame-level Lakers run. Final verdict: Los Angeles Lakers Win.