Hooped Up

The Portland Trail Blazers and Raptors have agreed in principle on a trade sending Juan Dixon to Toronto for Fred Jones in a swap of backup guards, ESPN The Magazine’s Ric Bucher reported.

Dixon, 28, in his fifth NBA season, is averaging 8.9 points per game for the Blazers. Jones, also in his fifth year, is averaging 7.6 points.

“He’s excited,” Beverly Jones, Fred’s mother, told The Oregonian of Portland on Thursday about her son returning to his home state. “And it makes me happy he is coming home.”

Both players have seen little of the court of late. Jones, in the first year of a three-year, $9.9 million deal with the Raptors, recently missed eight games with a dislocated finger on his right hand. Dixon did not play Tuesday against the Lakers and played eight minutes on Tuesday against Utah.

ESPN