Nuggets Send Boykins And Hodge To Milwaukee For Blake

Nuggets dealing Boykins, Hodge to Bucks for BlakeBy 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 guard 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.
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Nice steal for the Bucks.

I love Boykins - I wouldn't mind havign him here.

Good pickup for Denver. They get a true backup point guard (not a shoot-first guy) and he's tall enough not to be a defensive liablity.

terrible move by the Nuggs. The Nuggets GM must feel like he owes the Bucks GM for something, he sent Ruben Patterson (13+ ppg) to the Bucks for Joe Smith and now Boykins, Hodge and Cash for Steve Blake. I like Blake, but not that much.

Boykins is fun to watch but he doesn't shoot very well (.413) and is generally wild on offense. On defense he gets some steals, but he is (obviously) a terrible one-on-one defender.

Patterson and Karl did not get along. Their huge egos could not coexist.

Hodge is a good D-league player.

Even though the Nuggets paid 700k in cash, they still came out ahead. There is roughly 56% of the season left and all players are on the final year of their contracts (Blake: 1,330,000; Boykins 2,950,000; Hodge 1,234,800)

Denver pays (.56) * $1,330,000 = $744,800

+ $700,000 = 1,444,800

Millwaukee pays (.56) * $2,950,000 = $1,652,000

(Hodge's remaining salary covered by 700k from Denver)

So you can see that Denver would have had to pay about 2.3 million instead of 1.4 million if they hadn't made this trade.

Thus Denver saves money and adds a true point guard to the team. As I said, all these guys are on the last year of their contracts. AI and Boykins are not a good combo in the backcourt. Nice trade for Denver for financial and game reasons.

I agree as far as financial reasons, but saving some cash isn't gonna help you if or when you get to the playoffs. I thought Boykins and AI worked well together, it gave the Nuggets a pair of quick guards that can score. In fact Boykins scored over 20 points in 8 of the 10 games he played since Iverson was traded. In my opinion Boykins is a pretty decent shooter, his fg% isn't great, but having a guy that quick who can shoot gives you another option on offense and someone that you can't afford to leave to double team another player. As far as Patterson, even if Karl didn't get along with Patterson, I would think you'd look for an even trade. I think either way, they traded better players and got worse players in return. And Hodge, yea, I think he'll be playing for the Bucks D-League team in 4-6 weeks as soon as Redd comes back.

When Melo is back, it will be nice for the Nuggets to roll with a true point guard (for some of the time) who can feed them both the ball. I think they should have at least one of those on the roster since they have plenty of other scoring options (including J.R. Smith).

Boykins scored a lot of points with Ivy, but the Nuggets also lost a lot of games.

Most Nuggets fans I have talked to are very happy with this trade.

I can't even remember who they traded Patterson for? Karl is an ass, but so is Ruben "the registered sex offender" Patterson.