MVN - Most Valuable Network

The Verdict: Anderson Varejao Is Worth It

If you said that the last calendar year in the Cleveland Cavaliers organization has been dominated by the words “Mike Bibby,” you wouldn’t be completely wrong.

You would, nevertheless, be wrong.

That’s because this last offseason saw General Manager Danny Ferry and the Cavs front office wage a monumental and unprecedented war with forward/center Anderson Varejao and his agent, Dan Fegan. It wasn’t too long ago that Varejao was viewed as the team’s “Most Untradeable Player Not Named LeBron James,” yet just three years after he came aboard, the Cavs were having trouble keeping him.

We all knew how that turned out: Fegan wanted close to “Nene Money” ($60 million over six years) for Andy. Some reports confirmed it, some reports had Varejao’s camp vehemently denying it. As a restricted free agent, the Cavs had Varejao by the neck. They owned his NBA rights for however long they wanted to. Sign-and-trades could not be worked out, presumably because no other team was going to cave in for Fegan’s demands, either.

Finally, Fegan was able to use the Charlotte Bobcats as an instrument in his ploy to get Varejao the money and deal that he wanted. Charlotte somehow managed to be duped into signing Varejao to a cheap offer sheet around the midlevel exception for three years, knowing full well that the Cavs would match.

Ferry did just that, but as always is the case with the Cavs these days, there was a catch: Varejao’s deal with Charlotte had included a player option after the second year, which meant that the Brazilian could opt out to become an unrestricted (that’s right, not restricted) after the 2008-09 season, just two offseasons from now.

Now, for the time being, things seem to be patched up in Cavalier Land. Varejao was back in the fold just in the nick of time. Cleveland has their great frontcourt depth back. And Varejao is making about the same salary that Ferry wanted him to.

But based on the way Varejao has been playing since coming back (see: lights out), the Cavs probably want to go back to that one school of thought that presided over the organization not too long ago: make Varejao a key long-term building block to put around franchise cornerstone James.

Does it mean an eight-figure salary annually? Maybe, but here’s one thing: Varejao is easily enjoying a career year in what is his fourth season in the league, and he’s doing it after holding out for well over the first month of the season.

And for the conspiracy theorists out there, keep in mind that next year, and not this one, will be his true contract year. Also keep in mind that Varejao has gotten better in each of his four years in the league both statistically and in terms of what he means to the growth of the team.

Sure, I was one of those who scoffed at the notion of breaking the bank for a “seven and seven guy,” which Varejao was last year. However, new trains of thought were discussed about how to assess Varejao’s true value, and it got many to talk themselves into validating eight figures to a player who has been nothing more than a role player over his three-year NBA career.

You can probably bottle up everything that Varejao means to the Cavs and has meant to them over his tenure inside Thursday night’s 90-88 victory at San Antonio. In a rematch of last spring’s Finals, Varejao logged a double-double with 12 points and 14 boards, shooting six-for-nine from the floor in 32 minutes. Cleveland out-rebounded the Spurs, 45-40, as Varejao muscled his way inside against San Antonio’s big and polished front line.

More importantly, though, was the number in what has become Anderson’s trademark statistic: the “+/-” statistic. The Cavs were +12 during the time period when Varejao was on the floor for them. Meanwhile, the man that Varejao has had to compete with for playing time throughout his career, Drew Gooden, was -5 in just 23 minutes.

That has been the story when it comes to these two guys. Gooden has the better “concrete” statistics: he’ll average more points, more boards, and will look like he’s the mainstay and cornerstone at the position and not Varejao.

Yet, the Cavs seem to out-hustle, out-work, and simply out-play opponents during Varejao’s time on the court. Earlier in his career, this was attributed to the minimal playing time Andy saw (about 15 minutes per game), and since the sample size was so low, it was easy for skeptics (ah-hem) to say that Varejao was just a change-of-pace energy guy who could only change the direction of a game momentarily.

Maybe it’s built-up angst over an agonizing summer. Maybe it’s the growth he’s undergone as a player four years into the league. But whatever the reason is, Anderson Varejao is well on his way to effectively knocking down all the doubts and skepticism about his game. He’s getting 29 minutes a night coming off the bench, and Cleveland continues to be in the “+” whenever his trademark hair is streaking across the court. He has shown that he can do what he does for an extended period of time while also showing that he has plenty of room to continue growing as a player.

That might be worth “Nene money.” It might not. But ask yourself one thing: who else can the Cavs bring in that does the same things that Anderson Varejao does for anything less?

This entry was posted on Friday, January 18th, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Danny Ferry, TrueHoop, Dan Fegan, Anderson Varejao, Drew Gooden, San Antonio Spurs, Mike Bibby, Cleveland Cavaliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.