Anderson Varejao has publicly stated that he’s done with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He does not want to play for the organization at all.
Right now, Anderson Varejao is a restricted free agent. He’s sitting out the season because the Cleveland Cavaliers won’t pay him the $10 million a year that he’s looking for. The Cleveland Cavaliers are wisely refusing to budge on their stance. While they value what Anderson Varejao brings to the team, they really don’t want to commit that much money to him.
From the looks of it, there’s not going to be too many teams that are going to be willing to commit that much money to him. While the league has been known to overpay for size, $10 million a year seems a bit much for the 6′10″, 240 backup forward. Anderson Varejao’s numbers aren’t that impressive on paper, but he does bring energy, hustle, and defense to the floor. Those are qualities that every general manager looks for. However, they also believe that they can get similar production at a much lower price tag.
His agent, Dan Fegan, still believes otherwise. He’s willing to take the risk and wait things out. Dan Fegan has pulled off miracles before as he once was able to secure a combined $80+ million for Howard Eisley and Shandon Anderson. He’s so confident that he can get a great contract for Anderson Varejao that he’s even pulling the European card here. Dan Fegan has the 25 year old Brazilian telling people that he would be willing to go play overseas in Europe if needed. Of course, he’d probably be hard pressed to get more than $5 million a season in Europe, but we understand him using the threat as leverage.
If Anderson Varejao would be willing to lower his asking price to about $7 million a year, then there should be plenty of offers for him. Almost every playoff team would love to have him providing a spark off the bench for that amount.
It’s quite interesting that the Cavaliers are refusing to give him that big contract. Right now, the team is sitting at 4th place in the Eastern Conference, but general manager Danny Ferry knows full well that they need another big man.
Currently, the Cavaliers only have two big men averaging more than 20 minutes a game. Of course, it helps that Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas are averaging a combined 29 points and 21 rebounds a game. Plus, LeBron James has been having a superhuman season and pulling down 8 rebounds a game to help out. For long term success, though, the Cavaliers would much rather see another player chipping in to help them average that amount. There’s even talks of the team being interested in underachieving center Nazr Mohammed and his big contract.
So, basically, Anderson Varejao’s tenure with the Cavaliers is over.