Nuggets deal Boykins, Hodge to Bucks for Blake
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

The Denver Nuggets need some breathing space from luxury-tax territory. The Milwaukee Bucks need backcourt scoring to counter their injury crisis.

That's why the teams, according to NBA front-office sources, are combining on a trade featuring Earl Boykins that will be announced later Thursday.

Now 10 games into the Allen Iverson Era, Denver has agreed to send Boykins and little-used forward Julius Hodge to the Bucks for guard Steve Blake.

The surging Boykins has scored 20 points or more in eight of his 10 games alongside Iverson, but his shots and minutes were certain to dwindle when Carmelo Anthony returns from suspension on Jan. 22. Denver couldn't resist the opportunity to trade him now given that Boykins will soon be its odd man out and more so because this move ensures that the Nuggets will not be paying luxury tax at season's end.

The Nuggets, sources say, had hoped to keep Boykins for a few more games while Anthony completes his 15-game ban. But they had to make the trade immediately because Milwaukee's $4.3 million injury exception created by Bobby Simmons' season-ending ankle and foot surgeries -- its only mechanism for taking back Boykins' contract in this exchange -- expires Friday.

Boykins' arrival will be a welcome boost to the Bucks, who have lost leading scorers Michael Redd (knee) and Mo Williams (shoulder) to injuries in the past week. Redd is expected to miss at least a month, with Williams sidelined two to three weeks. Charlie Villanueva (shoulder) is also out indefinitely and Simmons didn't play a single game this season before it was determined that he'd need two operations.

The Bucks are hoping Boykins' scoring can help keep them in the playoff hunt until Redd and Williams return. The 5-foot-5 dynamo makes $2.95 million this season and is scheduled to earn $3 million next season but has the right to opt out of his contract and become a free agent July 1.

Milwaukee, sources said, also managed to extract an estimated $700,000 from the Nuggets to pay the remainder of Hodge's $1.2 million salary.

Blake, meanwhile, will get an opportunity to win some back-up minutes in Denver's backcourt, with the Nuggets admittedly looking for pass-first facilitators who can play with Iverson, Anthony and swingman J.R. Smith.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

Where are you Joe Dumars?!?!?!

Your perfect backup point guard just went to a division rival. You could have offered a better salary clearing package than Milwaukee did. Davis and Murray? Joe, we need a point so bad, you need to do something... anything.

Blake is garbage, the Nuggets are getting nothing in return.

Blake is garbage, the Nuggets are getting nothing in return.
Blake is pass-first garbage, FlipM is chuck-first garbage.

I think if this was a week later and Webber was here we would have made a deal for Boykins.

AIWHCM

(Don't try Glenn, you don't want to know.)

And I wish he came here?
And I wish Hodge came here?
Any igloos honing catapults hiring?

Maybe in addition to the much discussed "I told you so" forum, we need to add an "IB..." forum.

Maybe a haiku forum, too.

Doesn't surprise me that Boykins was traded.

He was on the trading block for sometime and the Nuggets were looking for a taller backup point guard.

Im glad we didn' get Boykins because I heard that he was turning into a lockeroom cancer although he is an expiring

How was he turning into a locker room cancer? Everything I've heard suggests that he's a decent locker room guy, not a Nate Robinson-level bonehead.

Watson insurance for Billups? LOL...can't see it. I'd just as soon rather draft a PG than put that faith in Watson. Watson as a starter leading the team isnt all that much insurance for me, but thats just me.

He's insurance, not a replacement. Unfortunately you cannot replace Billups if he bolts.

i know what you meant. he's a backup. ocasional starter imo. i wouldnt want him starting every game regardless of who he was replacing. Again i'd rather draft a PG over watson.

i know what you meant. he's a backup. ocasional starter imo. i wouldnt want him starting every game regardless of who he was replacing. Again i'd rather draft a PG over watson.

well, you still would. But with Watson you can afford to draft the best player available instead of drafting a specific position (see Cleaves, Mah-teen). Watson would be a stop gap until you get a younger PG (or Blaylock pans out).

Watson's ability to stop dribble penetration would be huge for the Pistons. He's putting up about 10 assists per game since he's been starting for the Sonics as well, so he's getting guys some good looks.

Now his shooting is something that is poor, but we have 10 other guys that can handle the shooting. Being a poor shooter hasn't limited Lindsey's minutes at all, so I'm not worried about Earl.

He's about as perfect of a backup PG as there is for us right now.

mateen wasnt the best anything. i dont believe that was anything but joe d smoking dope. in fact dumars admitted to as much. he said "i was smoking dope and didnt know what i was doing yet. ..sounds about right.[smilie=blaha.gif]

Watson's ability to stop dribble penetration would be huge for the Pistons. He's putting up about 10 assists per game since he's been starting for the Sonics as well, so he's getting guys some good looks.

Now his shooting is something that is poor, but we have 10 other guys that can handle the shooting. Being a poor shooter hasn't limited Lindsey's minutes at all, so I'm not worried about Earl.

He's about as perfect of a backup PG as there is for us right now.
if flip is still the coach, your starting pg has to have shooting ability or his assists wont matter.

mateen wasnt the best anything. i dont believe that was anything but joe d smoking dope. in fact dumars admitted to as much. he said "i was smoking dope and didnt know what i was doing yet. ..sounds about right.[smilie=blaha.gif]

Well, it was still drafting based on needs and not based on the highest rated player. Look at Darko. I'm not a Melo fan, but you know the fact that we had Prince kept us from really looking at Melo. And I'm sure we didn't consider Wade with RIP here too.

if flip is still the coach, your starting pg has to have shooting ability or his assists wont matter.

Who wants Watson to start?

Also, as I just mentioned in another thread, I always believed, and still do, that drafting Mahteen was about trying to generate ticket sales just as much as it was about basketball skills.

How was he turning into a locker room cancer? Everything I've heard suggests that he's a decent locker room guy, not a Nate Robinson-level bonehead.

I couuldnt beleive it either but another poster in another forum said that he was turning into a distraction which was rubbing off players the wrong way.

Well, it was still drafting based on needs and not based on the highest rated player. Look at Darko. I'm not a Melo fan, but you know the fact that we had Prince kept us from really looking at Melo. And I'm sure we didn't consider Wade with RIP here too.

So we didn't draft Melo because of Prince;
We didn't draft Wade because of Rip;
But we drafted Darko even though we had Ben?

You can use the "Darko was going to develop into the big man of the future" or become a stud backup logic, but why couldn't the other two have developed for the future. I would have loved to have seen us take Wade and let him be the backup at both guard positions for a few seasons until he finally forced our hand and we had to either trade him or someone else, which would have just brought in more assets. I was never all that big on Melo, so I'm glad we didn't draft him no matter what the reasoning was.

^Prince and Rip=young

Ben=old.

^Prince and Rip=young

Ben=old.
yup. and on top of that nether Ben nor Sheed are a post player, which is what we tried to make Darko into.

That was just stupid on our part. If we wanted to get a young big to develop as a post man, why the hell wouldn't we take Bosh? Darko was like Sheed Light

Because we listened to Chad Fraud I guess.

Darko is lethal from the post AND perimeter.

-CF

That was just stupid on our part. If we wanted to get a young big to develop as a post man, why the hell wouldn't we take Bosh? Darko was like Sheed Light
Well, we didn't have Sheed at the time we drafted Darko.

But we did have Okur developing into something pretty good, and he had the outside game going on too.

But we did have Okur developing into something pretty good, and he had the outside game going on too.
The rules were whacked back then. Unless we got way under the cap, we were only allowed to offer Memo the MLE because he was a 2nd round draft pick that signed only a 2-year contract so we didn't have his full Bird rights. If he was bad enough that he would've stayed for the MLE, he wasn't what we would've wanted as a long-term solution. If he was good enough to command more than the MLE, we couldn't offer it unless we had a salary cap fire sale (and then we wouldn't be having a title). Check out the Gilbert Arenas Rule.