Longtime Cavaliers center Anderson Varejão is returning to the franchise for the rest of the 2020/21 season, tweets Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Selected with the No. 30 pick in 2004 out of Brazil, Varejão proved to be a crucial two-way force on several LeBron James-fronted Cleveland clubs. Varejão’s tenure in Cleveland reached its personal peak when he made a 2009/10 All-Defensive Second Team. The veteran would be plagued by injuries that would cause him to miss more than half of his games during four of the next five seasons.
All told, the Brazilian big man logged nearly 12 full seasons with the team, in addition to spending parts of two years with the Warriors. Varejão last suited up in the NBA for 14 games with Golden State during the team’s eventful 2016/17 season. He holds career league averages of 7.3 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.9 SPG and 0.6 BPG.
Varejão most recently served stints in 2018 and 2019 with Brazilian club Flamengo.
The 38-year-old vet could see spot minutes behind starting center Jarrett Allen and his primary backup Isaiah Hartenstein, on a rebuilding Cleveland roster with its eye on the lottery. At 21-41, the Cavaliers are the No. 13 seed in the East, seven games behind the tenth-seeded Wizards for a shot at the NBA’s play-in tournament. Bringing back a fan favorite now will be a fun wrinkle as the team embraces its fate and prepares for the 2021 draft.
Given their plans to re-sign Mfiondu Kabengele, the Cavs won’t technically have an open spot on their 15-man roster to sign Varejão, but the club is hoping to receive approval for a hardship exception to add a 16th man, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, who refers to Varejão’s anticipated deal as a “celebratory contract.” It may end up being a 10-day pact rather than a rest-of-season contract, depending on when it’s completed, Fedor adds.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Well, this is unexpected
Oh no. Marty is going to post a complaint about the Warriors. “Why didn’t the Warriors sign him”?
He only played 14 games in 2017 before the Warriors released him, but they gave him a ring anyway. He knows they won’t win another one this year.
Ok. Is there an issue. Teams usually do give players rings that didn’t play a full year. It happens in most team sports…The Warriors are probably closer to winning a Championship than the Rockets.
The Warriors only wish, their organization is on the way down.
The Rockets are already at their nadir, they’re not going any lower.
Houston is on the rise and will be competing very soon, while things will only get much worse for Golden State over the next few seasons.
Don’t pay attention to this knuckle head, he just blindly talks smack about any franchise clearly better than his (pretty much every franchise)
Well that a name I haven’t heard in forever
We better bring back the Varejao wigs!
Maybe they can bring back Mark Price and Craig Ehlo too. Man, if it wasn’t for getting lucky with LeBron, this franchise would have never done anything.
you could say the same thing about the bulls getting Jordan
Fair point.
No Bulls had competitive teams in the 70s with Bob Love, Chet Walker, Artis Gilmore, et. al., and during the DRose era, where they came up against LeBron in the ECF. The idea that unless you win it all you suck is childish. CLE had some great teams that just ran into Jordan. LeBron was almost payback to the DRose teams.
Between 1970-2003, the Cavs won 4 playoff SERIES. In 34 years, they only won a playoff series in 3 different years and lost in the 1st round in 10 years. That’s not great by any stretch of the word. It’s fine if your expectations for your franchise peaks with a first round playoff exit, but don’t try to pass them off as great.
BTW, I never used the word suck, I have always considered that word to be childish.
And Warriors landing Steph Curry at #7 and Klay Thompson at #11
Can veterans sign two-way deals in ‘20-‘21?
no
Lol someone tell the Cavs 2020 is over time to go back to normal
lol this is a strange way to tank
Brad Daugherty begins to stretch….
I think the writer got the date wrong: April Fools’ Day was a month ago…