'Twas the night before media day, and the Cavaliers made a minor trade involving four players who never put on a uniform with the team.
The Cavs shipped guard John Lucas III, swingman Malcolm Thomas, forward Erik Murphy and rookie center/forward Dwight Powell to the Celtics for guard Keith Bogans and two second-round picks, Cavs general manager David Griffin said Thursday.
Along with Bogans, the Cavs received the rights to the Kings' 2015 and 2017 second-rounders (both top-55 protected), and shipped off their own 2016 and 2017 second-round picks.
Bogans, an 11-year veteran, has played 671 career games, compiling averages of 6.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists for Orlando, Charlotte, Houston, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Chicago, Brooklyn and Boston. The 6-foot-5 guard is also a career .353 shooter from the 3-point line.
Lucas appeared in 42 games for the Jazz last season with averages of 3.8 points and 1.0 assist in 14.1 minutes per game. Over his six-year NBA career, the 5-11 guard has played for Houston, Chicago, Toronto and Utah, averaging 4.8 points and 1.4.
Murphy, a 6-10 forward, appeared in 24 games for Chicago last season with averages of 0.3 points and 0.3 rebounds.
Thomas, a 6-9 forward, played in eight games for Utah and San Antonio last season, averaging 1.9 points and 2.6 rebounds.
Lucas, Murphy and Thomas were all acquired via a trade with the Jazz in late July.
Powell, the 45th overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft, signed with the Cavs on Aug. 23. He appeared in three games with the Cavs in the Las Vegas Summer League in July, and averaged 5.0 points and 3.7 rebounds in 11.3 minutes per game.
According to a report by ESPN Boston: "The combination of Bogans' contract being non-guaranteed both this season at $5.3 million and next season at $5.5 million -- along with Brendan Haywood's fully unguaranteed $10.5 million salary in 2015-16 -- potentially gives the Cavs a combined $16,035,935 in unguaranteed salary to dangle in trades for the 2015-16 campaign, which is a significant amount of cap relief to offer trade partners."
Cavs.com contributed to this report.
