Cleveland Cavaliers Extending Anderson Varejao’s Contract Is Intriguing

By Dan Schultz @DSchultz89 on October 31, 2014

The Cleveland Cavaliers and power forward/center Anderson Varejao have reportedly agreed to a three-year, $30 million dollar extension.

It appears now that Varejao, who has played his entire 11-year NBA career with the Cavaliers, will most likely finish out his career where he started.

When he is on the floor, Varejao is a solid one-on-one defender in addition to being a man possessed on the glass. He is a hustle-player who has made a living off of his energy and ability to rebound exceptionally well on both sides of the floor, and all indications are that he is as beloved by his teammates as he is by the city of Cleveland.

While this contract might make sense given the production Varejao gives the Cavaliers, he has not been on the floor for big chunks of his career. Over the last four regular seasons combined, he has only played in 146 out of a possible 324 games. His energy is at times his greatest undoing, which has resulted in many injuries that have kept him out of a ton of games over much of his career. In fact, he has only logged 80 games played or higher in two seasons during his career.

To be honest, I am not totally certain Varejao is worth this contract based on these health issues. If you are going to reward a player with a $10 million per year contract, you want to be sure he is going to be healthy for most of the season.

This somewhat reminds me of when the Miami Heat signed the “Big Three” in the summer of 2010, and then finished their offseason by signing Joel Anthony to a highly questionable five-year, 18 million dollar deal. Varejao is certainly a much, much better player than Anthony, but this contract might be one the team looks back on and asks “Why did we do that?”

Of course, there is always the chance that Varejao finally manages to stay healthy and this contract turns out to be a steal for the Cavaliers, but I would certainly be a little concerned if I was a Cavaliers fan if Varajeo continues to battle these nagging injuries.

Dan Schultz is an NBA sports writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on twitter @dschultz89. “Like” him on Facebook and add him on Google.