Cavaliers trade Andrew Bynum to Bulls for British Olympian Luol Deng

CHICAGO // The Cleveland Cavaliers traded Andrew Bynum in time – and got an all-star in return.

The Cavaliers acquired Luol Deng from the Chicago Bulls late Monday night for Bynum and three future draft picks, beating the deadline to guarantee the centre’s full contract for the season.

Along with Bynum, who had recently been suspended indefinitely by the Cavaliers for conduct detrimental to the team, the Cavaliers also sent the Bulls a first-round pick and two second-round picks and gave Chicago the right to swap first-round choices in 2015 if the Cavs are not in the lottery.

Deng, a member of the 2012 British Olympic basketball team, has been an all-star the last two seasons.

He will be a free agent after this season, and with the Bulls’ championship aspirations gone following Derrick Rose’s season-ending knee injury, there was no reason to hold onto him and risk losing him for nothing.

Deng is averaging a career-best 19 points this season and has been a member of the NBA’s all-defensive team. He’s also a former winner of the NBA’s sportsmanship award, and his professionalism will be welcomed by the Cavaliers, who quickly ran out of patience with Bynum.

“Luol reflects all that we are striving for in building our team,” Cavs general manager Chris Grant said. “He’s a tremendous defensive player that can impact the game on both ends of the court with a team-first mentality and is a high character leader.”

Bynum signed a two-year, $24 million (Dh88.15m) contract with the Cavs in July, but only $6 million of the $12.5 million he was scheduled to earn this season was guaranteed if he was still on Cleveland’s payroll by January 7.

Now the Bulls can waive him and earn that salary relief to position themselves for the future.

“The moves made today will put us in a better position to make the entire roster stronger for the future and to compete for a championship,” Bulls general manager Gar Forman said in a statement.

Bynum, who won two NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, averaged 8.4 points in 24 games for the Cavaliers after sitting out all last season with Philadelphia because of knee surgery.

The Cavs had reportedly been involved in talks with the Lakers for over a week about a trade involving Bynum for Spanish star Pau Gasol, but the two sides could not come to an agreement.