Keyon Dooling appears to have taken his last shot for the Milwaukee Bucks (Photo: Jonathan Daniel)

UPDATE: Charles F. Gardner is reporting Dooling and a second round pick will be heading to Boston for a trade exception.

Alex Kennedy of Hoopsworld adds on to an earlier report from Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times, tweeting that Milwaukee Bucks backup point guard Keyon Dooling will be heading to the Boston Celtics for a second round draft pick.

Dooling had been a likely trade candidate since June after Milwaukee acquired two point guards, Beno Udrih and Shaun Livingston, along with forward Stephen Jackson in a draft day three-way trade with the Charlotte Bobcats and Sacramento Kings.

Dooling’s one season in Milwaukee was a rocky one. Originally signed to backup Brandon Jennings, Dooling spent a large part of the season in a shooting guard role that he wasn’t quite cut out for. Dooling started 22 games when Jennings went down with an injury mid-season. After a stellar year from Luke Ridnour in the backup point guard spot, Dooling’s sub-40% shooting often made him a target for the criticism of fans.

Dooling’s departure essentially leaves the Bucks with 15 current roster candidates, not including the backup center many suspect they will be after. Dooling was set to make just under $2.3 million this season. Assuming Mike Dunleavy Jr., signed earlier on Thursday, is going to make in the neighborhood of $3.75 million next season, losing Dooling’s contract leaves the Bucks $1.825 million under the salary cap when accounting for Luc Mbah a Moute’s qualifying offer. This number does not take into account Darington Hobson, but does take into account Tobias Harris and Jon Leuer.

While the point guard log jam appears solved, Milwaukee will still have a decision to make now that Mike Dunleavy Jr. is reportedly in the mix. Stephen Jackson, Carlos Delfino, Dunleavy, Harris and Hobson will all compete for minutes at the two and three, with Udrih and Livingston able to spend some time on the wings as well.

Clearing Dooling gives the team the option to hold steady with this group or drop one more wing and make a run at another big man.

It’s worth noting that oft-mentioned Bucks backup target Joel Przybilla is considering the Bucks, but is rumored to be leaning towards retirement.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Part One of Ian Segovia’s first post here at Bucksketball was posted earlier today.  It addressed the positive aspects of Bucks guards this season.  Now, for part two.

Negatives

• Slamming John Salmons

Let’s keep this short because Salmons is going to be mentioned a lot while going through the rest of the negatives.

Many people like to point to his contract as a cause for his laziness. I will do no such thing. The reason there’s so much negativity towards the effort Salmons put forth is that the general public believes far too much in itself. Everyone believes that if they were handed millions of dollars to play basketball, they’d always play hard, do the little things and be the perfect teammate. This is bullshit. If it was, you wouldn’t have an office feud with Tammy in accounting.  You wouldn’t be on the internet right now. You’d be working, spending time with your kids, looking for a job or trying to make humanity better.

Here’s a less cynical explanation for Salmons season.

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It is the dawn of a new era at Bucksketball.  Today’s post is the very first from one of two new contributors, Ian Segovia.  Ian was once one of the finest 12-year-old spellers Wisconsin has ever known, and has turned that innate ability to spell words like “Parallel” into the ability to construct sentences about his favorite basketball team, the Milwaukee Bucks. As he hopes and prays Brandon Jennings can turn into some sort of Kevin Johnson clone, he’ll deliver his Bucks related thoughts here at Bucksketball.

We’re rolling out a three part series today reviewing Milwaukee’s pluses and minuses this season at guard forward and center.  Ian starts today with guards.  Up first, the positives.  Later, the negatives.  Next week we’ll look forward to the off-season and figure where the Bucks most pressing needs will be.

- Jeremy Schmidt

It was a tough year for the Bucks guards. Since the Bucks are such a perimeter-oriented offense, the guards deserve much of the blame for the team’s offensive struggles. Plus, it isn’t clear how much credit they deserve for the team’s stellar defense. The defensive standouts for the team were located in center and forward spots. And often the best defense against a great opposing guard was to funnel them to Andrew Bogut. Yet, the guards still had their silver lining.

• Boykins off the bench

John Hollinger’s PER rankings has Earl Boykins at 17.62, best among the bucks and good for fourteenth among all point guards. Obviously, this is ridiculous, but what PER does show is that Boykins was the perfect deep bench role player.

He dropped thirteen in the fourth quarter against the Lakers. He rang in the New Year with twenty-six against the Mavericks and then ran around like a chicken with its head cut off to drop in the game-tying bucket against the Heat. I haven’t kept track of anyone else’s third-string point guards, but I highly doubt any can boast as much.

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Goin’ alphabetical this season.  First half today, second half tomorrow.  Enjoy.

Earl Barron

Once finished a play
Coming out of timeout. Sad.
Clear role, in swamp O.

He was only in Milwaukee briefly, playing in seven March games, but he did well what he does.  He crashed the offensive glass and made mid-range jumpers.  He made seven of 16 shots from 16-23 feet and half of his 14 attempts at the rim.  On the Bucks, those qualified as stunning offensive numbers.  And it was a small sample size, but his 16% offensive rebound rate led the team.

Andrew Bogut

Kept on keeping on,
Through sickness and injury.
Offensive struggles.

So that was the season after the injury.  He struggled through the first few months, wore a bulky elbow pad and had us looking away as he missed free throw after free throw.  But he kept trotting out there every night, anchoring a terrific defense and occasionally contributing something offensively.  Next season will be an important one for Bogut.  It’s probably going to be the season where we all find out if he’s ever going to be an All-Star or not.  He’s had another surgery, it’s supposedly gone well and he should have most of the summer to work on his game.  Hopefully we’ll be able to tell in November.

Earl Boykins

Scores like a rabbit
Couldn’t be reliable.
Could be electric.

He won the Laker game.  And he did the same against the Kings.  And he did it a few more times, because that’s kind of what Earl Boykins does.  That’s why Boykins is such a quality third point guard.  He doesn’t need to play every night and won’t make much of a stink if he doesn’t.  But when he’s called on, Earl is ready.  That’s commendable.  On more than one occasion, Scott Skiles referred to Boykins as the best shooter on the team.  Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible for him to get his shot off without a little bit of trickery or ball-handling involved.  And therein lies the reason Boykins is what he is: fun.
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Fall behind early, battle back admirably, close the lead to an obtainable amount in the fourth quarter and then turn the ball over and stall offensively at key moments, preventing a seemingly waiting to be had game.

Happened again against Orlando, as it has so many times this season.  Milwaukee dropped a tough to watch professional version of Monday night’s not-so-classic UConn-Butler battle for the national title, 78-72.

Tuesday was the lowest of lows for the Bucks starting five.  Coach Scott Skiles took the drastic measure of inserting an entirely new five man group after Milwaukee’s first unit failed to score for the first 6:39 of the game.  Facing a 14-0 deficit, Milwaukee didn’t have just have a hole to dig itself out of, the Bucks were more like the child trapped at the bottom of the well.  And, as they so often do, the Bucks worked hard at getting out of that predicament.

From the moment the Bucks starters made their mass exit until just 2:01 remained in the game, Milwaukee out-scored Orlando 58-44.  Consecutive rather wacky baskets from Drew Gooden (is there anyone else on the Bucks whose shots are ever described as wacky?) left the Bucks even with Orlando, 72-72.  But the Bucks would out-cold their opponent once again, missing their final four shots, while mixing in a costly and completely avoidable turnover.  The Magic capitalized on the Bucks misfortune and put to bed a game they really had no business winning.

Fortunately for Orlando, Milwaukee had even less business winning it.

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