| Breaking Down The Varejao Situation Authored by Caleb Alpaugh - November 4, 2007 - 1:44 pm
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But Pavlovic finally broke his holdout by signing a three-year deal worth between $13 and $15 million dollars.
This was a great deal for the Cavs because they were able to get an integral part of their team back for a reasonable price. For Pavlovic, the contract is obviously not what he wanted (in my opinion, he is just as good as Matt Carroll and Jason Kapono, who both got huge contracts this offseason), but it is only for three years which means that if continues to improve he will be in line for a huge extension when he will be 26.
But now I move on to Anderson Varejao’s worth and why he should have been signed already. This offseason I have read many forum posts bashing Varejao and saying that he is only worth three- or four-million dollars a year. I am not quite sure what to say to these people because to me Varejao is worth at least seven-million dollars a year. I will breakdown why with three points.
First, just look at his numbers. In six games as a starter last year he averaged 12 points and 11.3 rebounds in 35.3 minutes of action. Giving him a deal for at least seven-million dollars a year would be a bargain in comparison to Erick Dampier, who got seven years and 73-million dollars by putting up those numbers three years ago. Obviously he is not the starter at the moment, but you have to look to the future with a player as young as Varejao which brings me to my second point.
Cavs fans need to realize that Varejao is their future starting center. He is much better in the center position for this team because it allows him to focus on defense and rebounding (His two specialties). A starting tandem of Drew Gooden and Varejao would give the Cavs a more balanced frontcourt where Gooden provides offense and Varejao provides defense.
Finally, Lebron James loves Varejao. They have a special connection with each other because they both love to win so much. The Cavs need to keep in town the players that James loves to play with because it will give James the incentive to stay. Let me point out, that I am not one of the people who think that Lebron wants to leave because I see no reason why he would want to leave (I will explain myself in another article down the road). The Cavs have already done this once by re-signing Ilgauskas when it was probably not the right move. Furthermore, what happens if Daniel Gibson wants a ton of money next offseason (His contract is up), will the Cavs give him the cold shoulder as well or will they give him the money he wants because he has a very special relationship with James.
To sum up, Varejao is worth the money he is asking for but I understand the Cavs’ not wanting to lose future cap flexibility. But if they didn’t want to do that, then they shouldn’t have signed Ilgauskas, Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones to long-term contracts in the summer of 2005 and given huge money to an injury prone Larry Hughes in that same summer. |
