I have to admit, I was shocked last week seeing the news that Anderson Varejao was reportedly planning to sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the rest of season, as of Friday.
It was also odd considering that shortly before, the Cavs were set to sign Mfiondu Kabengele on Saturday, and they ended up doing so for the rest of the season, and with the next two seasons non-guaranteed.
That made the Varejao news a bit more out there, as Cleveland would not be set to have any roster spots available. That includes both two-way slots.
According to a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com on Saturday, though, the completely injury-riddled Cavs were expected to apply for a hardship exception. If that were to be granted, it would lead to Varejao being signed to a 10-day deal.
Furthermore, per a report from Fedor on Monday, the Cavaliers were granted that hardship exception, and should be set to apply for a continuation of that hardship exception which would enable them to sign him to another 10-day from there.
#Cavs to sign Anderson Varejao to 10-day contract tomorrow after being granted hardship exception, sources tell @clevelanddotcom. Organization will submit a hardship continuation to get him a second "10-day" and keep him on roster for rest of seasonhttps://t.co/qIOtJJLMIc
— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) May 3, 2021
In terms of the reported details involving that/the injury situation leading to it, you can view those here.
While I wouldn’t expect him to get a ton of run, this still should be entertaining for fans of the Wine and Gold.
Cavs fans should simply soak in these end-of-career Varejao games.
During this 10-day farewell tour of sorts for Varejao with the Cavs, the squad he played 12 seasons with, we shouldn’t have to any expectations in terms of what could come on the floor.
But with the team being so banged up right now, a Varejao end-of-career stint is a key thing for us Cavs fans to look forward to.
Varejao, who had 7.6 points and 7.5 rebounds in his career with the Cavaliers, and was most notably an energy big during LeBron James’ first stint with Cleveland, is not a dude we should be expecting much from in this victory lap, so to speak.
Although, no matter how much or how little burn he gets, Varejao being in there for Cleveland will be quite the flashback, as KJG’s John Carter highlighted, and Cavaliers fans should simply soak it in.
There’s no need to rehash in regards to Varejao previously having signed with the Golden State Warriors, who were a club he played with to close out his NBA career after Cleveland dealt him to the Portland Trail Blazers near the 2016 trade deadline, and then waived him. Varejao of course played for Golden State a bit against Cleveland in that NBA Finals, for instance, which was odd at the time, admittedly.
Nonetheless, Varejao since hasn’t played in the Association for a while, and last played for two seasons in his native Brazil with Flamengo, a club he won a championship with there in 2019.
In any case, a brief farewell tour of sorts for Varejao with the Cavaliers should be a fun stroll down memory lane, and it will be a nice reminder of just how fun the “Wild Thing” was to watch back in the day.
Andy in those earlier days, particularly in LeBron’s first stint with the Cavs, would often be making plays as an impact defender in his burn, and he made so many hustle plays, such as taking charges and going for loose balls.
Unfortunately injuries piled up for him later on, particularly during James’ Miami Heat days when Varejao was with the Cavs still. But to a large extent, Andy will be remembered fondly by fans of the Wine and Gold for the effort and pure joy he played with.
With him set to be signed via the hardship exception, it should be a fun experience. That’d also be from an exposure standpoint for young guys such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Isaac Okoro to see Varejao out there.
And no matter what plays out on the floor for him in some burn, a farewell tour of sorts for Andy should be quite the viewing experience for Cavs fans, and we should just soak it in.