The Cleveland Cavaliers continue to make moves, striking a deal Saturday to move newly acquired guard Keith Bogans to the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Sixers will receive a 2018 second-round pick from the Cavs for taking on Bogans, whose $5.3 million salary this season and $5.5 million salary next season are fully unguaranteed. The Cavaliers will get a protected 2015 second-round draft pick in return.
The Cavs will create a $5.3 million trade exception in the process. They had just acquired Bogans on Thursday from the Boston Celtics in a five-player deal that saw rookie Dwight Powell and the unguaranteed contracts of John Lucas, Erik Murphy and Malcolm Thomas go to Boston.
The Celtics created a similar trade exception in that deal and also received two future second-round picks from the Cavs.
The Cavs were motivated to turn around and move Bogans so quickly, sources said, to ensure they stay away from the league's $78 million luxury-tax threshold for the 2014-15 season.
Cleveland hopes that, by moving Bogans into the Sixers' cap space, its new trade exception generated by this deal can prove as valuable as a trade chip and simply keeping Bogans and dangling him in potential deals over the next several months.
The Cavs still possess another valuable potential trade piece in veteran center Brendan Haywood, whose $10.5 million salary in 2015-16 is fully unguaranteed and thus likely to appeal to teams seeking cap relief.
Cleveland can now no longer aggregate the contracts of Bogans and Haywood next summer to potentially pursue a player with a superstar salary, but trading Bogans away now likely ensures that the Cavs will have no luxury-tax issues at season's end.