The Cavs signed Anderson Varejao to a six-year contract. It’s being touted as $50 million.
Six years, $50 million for Anderson Varejao is too much.
Except it’s not really $50 million. It could be $50 million, but it almost certainly won’t be $50 million.
It’s only $50 million if Varejao hits every incentive in his deal, one of which includes being named America’s Top Chef. The deal is basically six years for $42 million, and the last year is not fully guaranteed, which takes it to the high $30-million range.
During the playoffs, I wrote that Varejao had proven himself as an NBA starter and earned a four-year deal worth about $32 million. Once free agency started, I thought the Cavs might get him for $6 million given the deals given to others. The Cavs gave him $7 million, which is in the middle.
Six years is a lot of years, but it’s really five guaranteed. Varejao is 26, so five years puts him at 31 when the bulk of the contract is complete. I’d have preferred four.
The combination seems a lot for a guy whose combined scoring and rebounds last season don’t add up to 16. But if Varejao leaves, who replaces him from the free agent market? The Cavs needed Varejao, and he knew it. So even though there weren’t any other serious suitors for Varejao, he came out of it with a good contract for a good amount of years.
It’s eyebrow-raising to see that money figure thrown out with his name, but had Varejao signed somewhere else, the Cavs would have a gaping hole . To me, this keeps them level. It doesn’t advance the cause. But if they had not signed him they’d have taken a step back.
At some point, though, this $7 million per-year figure will be thrown at Varejao and the Cavs. Because it’s a lot of money for a guy whose offensive role is limited, and whose strengths are intangibles.
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Sheer insanity. His ratings are plummeting. Ferry is out of control. The man is Howard Beale and it's the last 20 minutes of "Network." Somebody at the Beacon Journal needs to pay a group of left-wing radicals to murder him. I nominate the intrepid sports columnist to foot the bill.
Sheer lunacy. Have you even looked at Varejao? This guy makes Zydrunas Ilgauskas look like Mr. Olympia. If terje cuts a fart from his log cabin in Montana, Varejao sways in the breeze.
And incentives on top of everything else???!!!! What did Ferry say? "Hey, I'll tell you what, Varejao's agent … Your client weighs 90 pounds. So I'll even give your client an extra $1.5 for every year of the contract that he takes steroids!"
Next on Ferry's list of Hall of Fame free agent targets? Jon Koncak and Jim McIlvaine.
Ferry has to be stopped.
While this contract is rather insane, let's examine the fallout from yet ANOTHER of the most ludicrous contracts every doled out: B.J. Ryan's 5-year, $47-million heist. Remember a few years back, when Shapiro targeted Ryan as the closer he wanted, then Toronto swept in with that indefensible, jaw-dropping offer? Well, it got the BlueJays bupkiss. No title, no playoffs, and I don't even think a .500 record! Ha, ha!! To top it off, yesterday they RELEASED Ryan during the 4th year because he's so awful!
So all of you nutjobs who think it's a wise investment to throw bazillions of dollars at pitchers….let's just ask ourselves: WHO has EVER panned out? Zito? Ryan? Chan Ho Park? Hampton? Kevin Brown? Carl Pavano? Franchises have literally crippled themselves with these completely assinine contracts. Please, GMs, stop the madness and get the game back under control.
Alan T., you need to shut up and get a life. Whether or not you disagree with the move, you have no place in these comments for that kind of crap. Don't you have anyone else to listen to you? You are always the first post. Go rant to your cats, lunatic.
I think Barry Zito's contract is a better example. Regardless, there's a difference. There is no salary cap in baseball. Horrible contracts may hurt a team's budget, but they don't destroy the team's salary cap on top of it.
Hughes, Ilgauskas, Marshall, Jones. As a result, cap-crushed for the next four years. All horrible multi-year contracts lasting through the end of the next century. So what lesson did the brilliant Duke-educated professor learn from that particular experience? Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varejao.
Ferry has to be stopped.
Thanks for adding to the discussion, Sean. Intelligent stuff.
Varejao's one of the more valuable big men off the bench in the NBA, which is a very good thing to have. Seven million a year doesn't sound that bad; it's a lot of years but Ferry's got to go all-in now.
Exactly, larry. And now he cripples the GM that succeeds Ferry. He assumed Boozer would opt-out and go to Detroit. Wrong.
So, with no Charlie Villanueva to use as leverage in negotiations, with no corpse of Ben Wallace to fall back on, with only a power forward kid named Hickson who Ferry obviously thinks just blows, Ferry was left with little recourse but to grossly overpay a good role player in dollars and years just to be sure the Cavaliers don't have to suit up four players in the starting lineup.
This is just an embarrassment. How can anybody in good conscience possibly spin this any differently than what it clearly is? I'd rather see Sheldon Ocker on the beaches of Lake Erie wearing a thong.
They could win a title this coming season, but it won't be because of Ferry or because there is now a team future. LeBron is gone. It's the 2005-2006 Miami Heat. George Allen's Redskins. One last shot. All or nothing.
I really enjoy Bill Simmons' very NBA knowledge and knowledge of NBA history and the fact he wrote for Jimmy Kimmel's show. Funny, very clever guy and a very good writer. I am ashamed to admit I read his Tweets, because I do think Twitter is utterly ridiculous. Here are two:
"Fifty million for Anderson Varejao????? I have to go to bed. Upside down. With saran wrap over my head. HOW AM I NOT A GM???"
"Note to self: when you're a free agent at the end of 2010, use Danny Ferry & Bryan Colangelo to jack up the bidding."
I overlooked one of the Tweets:
"Statement from Cavs: "Look, any time you can lock up a role player for $42.5m + incentives with the cap going backwards, you have to do it."
You know, at first glance, this seems a little insane. Perhaps not to the extent that you all are saying that it is, but a little. Look at it this way. . . . . Without Varejao, where are we in November? The guy is athletic, runs the floor, plays defense, and has an unbelievable connection with our superstar. How do you NOT sign him? One of you "fans" who has such a problem with this tell me what the alternative was in the real world, not in the fantasy world where every free agent does exactly what the fans want them to do.
NBA players making between 6 and 7 million per year:
Dan Gadzuric
Brian Cardinal
Etan Thomas
Vladimir Radmonovic
Nazr Mohammed
Desagana Diop
Joel Przybilla
Jason Kapono
Nick Collison
Earl Watson
Tony Battie
There are more. Any of these guys more valuable to their team than Varejao? Still complaining?
At least you didn't write that he is "young," Matt. I say Ferry should sign Pat's daughters. What's going to be a younger number in November, 13 or 27? Even with the two daughters added together it will be 26, which is younger than 27. Ink 'em.
Matt, with all due respect, that's a really, really dumb argument.
First, why in the world are you flashing the incredible stupidity of others to say it's OK to now be incredibly stupid? Your silly comment reminds me of the old parent thing: "If Johnny jumped off a cliff, would you jump off one, too?"
Second, this is a recession NBA. Salaries nose-diving. The cap dropping like a rock.
That contract is bad news. Real bad.
Great point Matt B. Enough said. I'm not always thrilled with Varejo but he works hard and has improved every year.
Dave, Pat works hard and his writing has improved every year, but I wouldn't give him $50 million for six years during a recession, either.
hmmmmm. Still no solution. You seem to be arguing that we should just let him walk, which is brilliant. Rather than pay him 7 mil, lets go into the season with JJ Hickson as our starter. You're right, this contract is bad news.
This is what cleveland sports fans always do, and it is infuriating. You just want to cry about something, so you chose to cry about a contract to Varejao. Let me ask you this. If we had signed him for 5 mil a year, would you be happy? If so, are we really going to complain about an extra 2 mil a year to a guy that we undeniably would be screwed without? Get a clue, dude.
Oh, and the point of showing you all of those guys that make between 6 and 7 mil isn't to excuse a bad signing, it is to show what the market states guys are worth. Ferry can't help that all of the other GM's made bad deals to marginal players. All he can do is look at what other guys are making and make a fair offer to his guys based on those numbers. For crying out loud, Jermaine O'neal will make over 22 mil this year! Shaq is making 20! At the end of this deal Varejao will be making in the 9 mil range at the most! I just don't get it.
I do "have a clue," Matt.
First, I would have NEVER have put the Cavaliers in the position to be raped in the first place.
And let him "walk?" To where? From all appearances, he had two choices: Cleveland or overseas.
Second, tell me when the regular season starts. If I'm not mistaken, it's MONTHS from now. A competent GM couldn't work out a trade to bring in a comparable "hard-working" forward by then? Please.
This reminds me of Ferry panicking like a crazy person and flying to Brazil in the middle of the night. Only this time L.A. was Ferry's Brazil.
Matt, that's the OLD MARKET. It's 2009!!!!
Newsflash: The Dow Jones isn't what it was in 2004, either!
From all appearances, there were several other teams interested. You obviously have some personal problem with Varejao or his game, which is fine, but it keeps you from thinking rationally. Everyone knows that the "Dow Jones" doesn't hurt the sports world as much as it does yours and mine. Just because you are now buying Giant Eagle brand milk instead of Smiths doesn't mean that you can't overspend on free agents a little bit to fit team needs. And again, I would say, who is this mysterious hard-working forward that you are going to sign? And if that doesn't happen, what are we left with? That's right, we are back to Hickson as our starting PF.
And I would say, finally, that there is a reason why you and I are arguing on a newspaper website and others are making millions of dollars to run pro-sports franchises. I am sure that Dan Gilbert now has you on his radar for a possible Ferry replacement. I am also sure that you would be a better Governor than Strickland, a better President than Bush or Obama, a better CEO than anyone else in the world, etc. However, until one of those things actually happens, you will be stuck here making emotionally charged comments about things you know little about, stomping around your mothers basement every time the Cavs, Indians, or Browns overspend a little bit. Have fun with that.
I give up.
I vote for Matt b. Alan…you've been taken out back and thrashed behind the woodshed. And you still haven't answered Matt b. The closest you have come is saying you'd wait closer to the beginning of the season and make a trade. Just who might you be targeting? Probably someone from Matt's list that makes $6-7 million.
Of course you vote for Matt b., Tim. Naturally.
And I've been thrashed behind a woodshed? I feel like I've been Ned Beatty trying to persuade that cute male model in "Deliverance." Not exactly a cerebral debate for the ages.
There are 30 franchises in the NBA, Tim. 30. There is not one single franchise in the entire NBA who would willing to trade the Cleveland Cavaliers a decent forward within the next … oh, four months?
Chris Wallace rivals Danny Ferry on the Richter moron magitude scale. So, in four months, there wouldn't be any way to get Chris Wallace, as one example, involved in a deal to get a forward shipped to Cleveland?
You don't pay a role player for six years. You just don't. And it's done for that kind of money? And, to top it off, this was done during a major NBA recession never before seen in the history of the league? With the cap already plummeting? With the storm clouds of a new CBA lurking on the horizon?
It is clinically insane. Rubber room.
"From all appearances, there were several other teams interested"
that is an agent driven lie. if there were teams lining up to pay varejao 10 million a year he wouldn't be in cleveland right now. also, it not as if letting varejao leave was the only other option. a sign and trade could have (and if it was possible SHOULD HAVE) been done. that it wasn't is even more evidence that there weren't any other serious bidders.
Can we get back to MY subject, please? Stupid baseball free-agent contracts. Geez.
jason, baseball is dead in cleveland.
Can Varejao at least hit?
Evidence of how difficult sign and trade deals are to complete. Orlando had to be thrown in as a 4th team just to complete the deal sending Marion to Dallas. That's right, 4 teams. So, rather than overpay a tad for a known commodity that fits well with your team, you are counting on waiting a few months, when other free agents have already been signed and the market is filled with no names and has beens, and try to get a team or several other teams involved in a sign and trade? That is your solution to this? Ladies and Gentlemen, we have another contender to take over for Ferry!!!
Four months. Four months. Four months. Nah, why work at a trade. Summer is for relaxing with the wife and kids. Why piss off the wife because now she won't be able to visit her mother? Hey, I have an idea: let's just throw six years and the kitchen sink at a guy who wouldn't start anywhere but on the very worst teams in the league! Prudent and very wise short and long-term planning. What a marvelous negotiating strategy.
Yes, Matt, give Ferry a medal. When LeBron is torching opponents while wearing his Nets uniform, and Mo Williams, Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varejao and their cushy 50-year contracts are leading the Cavaliers to the Promised Land, I'll remember your posts. And weep. Profusely.
matt, supposedly orlando got a nice trade exception out of the deal. so instead of losing turkoglu and getting nothing they were able to salvage something. hardly a throw in from their perspective.
Bingo, terje. Exactly what I've been writing about Rashard Lewis' sign and trade, when the Sonics received a $9 million trade exception for Lewis. Orlando now received about a $9 trade exception. And unfortunately, probably what the Cavaliers are going to get next season for James.
So now Orlando, if they want, within the next year, can trade somebody with a tiny contract in return for a talented guy with a much larger contract. Look for it to be used at the trade deadline.
6'11" with no mid-range game….6'11" with no mid range game…6'11" with no mid range game….
just step back – play the pass and let him shoot. And I haven't been on a basketball team since I was 15 or something.