I was perusing around ESPN.com today, and something happened to catch my eye. It was this. Honestly, not only am i not surprised, I could care less. This may seem like a bit of a shock to some of you, but Anderson has been on my short list for quite some time now. It all started a few years back when he and recently traded Sasha Pavlovic (who I like) were contract hold-outs after the Cavs reached and were subsequently swept in the NBA Finals in 2007. Back then, Wild Thing thought that he was all that AND a bag of chips, but he wasn't. He then decided to test the market as a restricted free agent. December came around, we matched an offer sheet and he got a deal which turned out to be less that what we had originally offered him. Super. Anyway, he opted out of his contract today, searching for greener pastures (or pockets) from what will probably be a a team circling the drain of the draft lottery. I'm sorry but if he wants a big time deal, he should put up big time numbers. Every so often this season, he'd have a good game, and every game he had maybe one good turn around backwards layup. But that's it. Frankly, I hope he's on a different team next season, unless we can keep him for the same amount he'd be making this year anyway. But I just don't understand how you can give someone a Wally Szczerbiak type contract for, well, Wally Szczerbiak type play. Varejao averaged 9 points and 7 rebounds in 28.5 minutes per game this season. During the playoffs this year, I would joke around and refer to Chicago's Joakim Noah as a "Poor Man's" Anderson Varejao. But when you crunch the numbers, at a third of the salary of Varejao, Noah averaged 7 points and 8 rebounds in just over 24 minutes per game. No joke there.
