The Boston Celtics officially waived John Lucas III and Malcolm Thomas on Sunday, sources confirmed to ESPN.com's Marc Stein.
Lucas and Thomas were two of the four players acquired from Cleveland on Thursday as part of a trade that sent out Keith Bogans. Boston's roster ballooned to 23 players, forcing the team to immediately waive three players in Chris Johnson, Chris Babb, and camp invite Christian Watford. By waiving Lucas and Thomas, the Celtics have created the necessary room to complete the long-awaited signing of free-agent swingman Evan Turner (while also creating an open spot that could be used to re-sign Watford to a camp deal).
The other two players acquired from Cleveland -- Dwight Powell and Erik Murphy -- are expected to camp with Boston. The team's roster, for the moment, stands at 18, but Boston has some additional maneuvering to complete over the next month to trim to the league maximum of 15 bodies for the start of the regular season.
Also on Sunday, the Philadelphia 76ers claimed Johnson, sources told Stein. The Celtics very much liked the quiet and hard-working Johnson, who appeared in 40 games last season after being summonsed from the D-League.
