Varejao signs offer sheet with Charlotte, Cleveland matches

[bstein14]

I would say that the lesson is you don't have to overpay your RFA... you don't have to be held hostage by the agent... you can play hardball and sign your player at a reasonable rate instead of handicapping yourself with huge overpaid and unmovable contracts.

The cavs would have been better off letting him go for nothing than to pay him $52 million. Yet for some reason you get teams paying players like

[Kstat]

they didn't overpay, and they didn't let him go. This is even worse.

Varejao will be pissy for the next 1 1/2 years, on a team that isn't bursting with chemistry to begin with.

In the end, he gets his free agency in 2009, and the Cavs won't get much for his services.

[Uncle Mxy]

He's not worth $52 million based off his performance to date, but if he were an unrestricted FA, I'd bet someone would ante up $40-45 million for 5 years.

The way I see it, the Cavs have him signed for about 2 years, then he's unrestricted. They can't trade him this year (unless they trade him right now) because his "just signed a contract" trade restriction ends after this year's trade deadline. They could have a hard time getting good value out of him next year because he's unrestricted and doesn't have to stay with who he's traded to. If he gets himself injured, he's not totally screwed with the third-year player's option. He's probably going to get more as an unrestricted FA next year than what he'd get as a restricted FA this year. Who are the young unrestricted bigs out on next year's market?

[Matt]

i wonder how much we'll have to pony up for Maxiell....

[Zekyl]

Ouch..... I didn't think about that. Well, he's more of an energy player than a star guy, so I'm hoping we won't have to pay him TOO much.

[bstein14]

Varejao is an energy guy off the bench, who plays solid D, and gave the Cavs 7 PPG and 7 RPG.

You could definately argue that Maxiell has just as much if not more potential and energy, and this season is producing more than what Varejao did.

So it seems as if at the very least he'll get $40 million over 5 years if he continues his solid play and improvement.

[Uncle Mxy]

You could definately argue that Maxiell has just as much if not more potential and energy,

Maxiell can't play C. Varejao can.

[Fool]

Tell that to Yahoo Fantasy Basketball.

[FP22]

i wonder how much we'll have to pony up for Maxiell....

Assuming he continues his current level of play, I'm gonna guess right around the MLE. Teams will always have their doubts about a 6-5 PF, regardless of what their eyes tell them.

[Glenn]

No Tractor in Cleveland

Had the Cavaliers not been able to finally re-sign Anderson Varejao, they were toying with the idea of signing former Michigan man Robert "Tractor" Traylor.

"I worked out Saturday and took a physical," said Traylor, who hasn't played in the NBA since 2005. "Once they signed Andy, I knew they were going with their guy. And they should, he's their guy and he's the one that helped them to the (Eastern Conference) championship.

"Sure, I'm disappointed. It would've been great to come back and play with a good group of guys."

Traylor instead will play for a team in the Puerto Rican professional league.