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It doesn't seem that long ago that the Southeast was an afterthought. I'm aware that sounds stupid as this division attempts to rise to serious L-bound prominence, but it's true -- before Dwight Howard and before Dwyane Wade and before Josh Smith and before Jeff McInnis ... what was there?

It doesn't particularly matter now; the division is still only an erstwhile powerhouse; you would never see a prediction coming that any one of these teams can contend for the NBA title right now, and that's what matters in these sort of things.

Of course, Orlando is a different story of sorts. Maybe. At least we have to wonder: Does Hedo Turkoglu Still Have the Special Sauce?

Hopefully the amount of time that Jeff McInnis will spend on the hardwood just got ... shorter. Or, at the very least, the Bobcats will have a more explosive offensive team with the addition of Earl Boykins, who they inked today for the remainder of the season. Boykins had been unemployed throughout the 2007-08 season thus far after splitting time between the Bucks and Nuggets last year.

Boykins, who played for Denver and Milwaukee last season, is somewhat undersized at 5-foot-5 but has been a dynamic scorer. He will fill the roster spot left open when the Bobcats made a 2-for-1 deal in December, swapping Walter Herrmann and Primoz Brezec to Detroit for center Nazr Mohammed.

The move isn't a huge surprise (although Charlotte had not previously been discussed as a potential alternative for the little fella) as the Bobcats have a banged up Raymond Felton, a better-suited-for-the-two Derek Anderson and McInnis as the only options to run the point. Head coach Sam Vincent clearly has issues with Felton's abilities, otherwise he wouldn't let McInnis, whose single digit point and assist averages in 25 plus per game are just abysmal, be in charge of distribution. Boykins averaged 14 points and four and a half assists per game while playing with Milwaukee last year and should provide a nice spark plug for a team that needs one more true scorer.