As the Cleveland Cavaliers begin training camp this season, they are without two of the important pieces to their Eastern Conference Championship from a year ago. Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, the Cavs' two restricted free agents, continue to wait for more money from the Cavs. According to an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the agents are looking for some pretty hefty contracts for their players. Pavlovic wants a deal for five years and in the range of $25 and $30 million. Varejao is looking for roughly $65 million over five years. While all Cavs fans want to get these two guys in camp, I applaud Danny Ferry and the Cavs for not acting desperately and signing these guys to those kinds of contracts.
This is not to say that I don't like Varejao and Pavlovic. They are good young players that continue to improve with every minute of experience. Still, to think that they are worth these kinds of top dollars coming off of their rookie contracts is pushing it. These guys, for the most part, have come off the bench during their respective careers. While Pavlovic had some time starting in Cleveland's run last year, he got that chance largely due to injury. He still had some serious inconsistencies and had to be sent to the bench partway through many first half performances. Similarly, Varejao was a role player subbing in a three-man rotation between the center and power forward positions. He never made serious offensive contributions and while his hustle is impressive, he is a couple of rule changes away from hurting the team with his incessant flopping as he attempts to take charges.
While it would be nice to have these two guys back with the Cavaliers, at this point in their careers, they are still to be considered role players. Role players who want big money are big-time traps. If a team ends up paying them huge money and then they don't turn out to be starters, they kill you three-fold. First, they aren't contributing enough on the court to justify their salaries. Second, they chew up valuable salary cap space and/or cost you a ton of money in luxury tax if you are over the cap number. Third, they are generally tough to trade. The perfect example of this is Larry Hughes, who has never been as productive for the Cavs, whose cap number is between $13 and $14 million per year.
Article comments
1 - Nigel
C'mon man. Varejao is looking for 12-13 mil/yr and I agree - that is excessive, but Pavlovic is asking for 5-6 mil/yr... That is, like, mid-level exception.
Are you telling me that combination of Pavlovic's skill, size, on court behavior, and youth is not at the level of an average NBA player?
Once Cavs front office gets someone for 5 mil/yr who is better than Sasha, than say kudos... Otherwise, say buy-buy to LeBron... Tactical solution will eat their strategy...
2 - FilteringCraig
I think the Pavlovic number is kind of close, but after watching him last year for a full year, it is hard to say that he is anywhere close to a finished product. He is still a prospect and he probably should be one more smaller contract away from signing his "career" contract.
There is a balance somewhere for him and the Cavs, but it probably isn't $25-30 million over 5 years. Especially at a position where they have a veritable logjam of players including Boobie Gibson and their first round draft choice from a year ago, Shannon Brown, who they are still pretty high on.