Cavs Board

Last time this year, the Cavs were absent from the free agent market.  They had no first round draft pick to groom, and following an NBA Finals appearance, the biggest priority for Cleveland fans was locking up Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic to contract renewals.  

A year later, Sasha is hoping to bounce back from a lost season and Anderson Varejao is trying to figure out what went wrong as he’s faced with the challenge of playing his way into the contract his agent Dan Fegan assured him he’d command on the open market.

The 2007 NBA playoffs had seen the Cavs reach the Finals, and despite losing to the Spurs, it seemed as if Danny Ferry would be able to retain all of the important players since both Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic were restricted free agents, giving the Cavs the right to match any offers they received. 

Anderson Varejao had spent the first three years of his career as a fan favorite.  Fans demanded his return.  After coming to the Cavs as an untested second-round pick from Orlando with Drew Gooden and Stephen Hunter in a trade for Tony Battie after the Carlos Boozer incident, Varejao had endeared himself to Cleveland.  Expectations were low and Anderson’s return was high.  He played hard, and while limited offensively he always seemed to make a positive impact on the game with his desire and hustle.

Fast forward (or rewind rather) to last summer.  Both Varejao and Pavlovic were in contract discussion stalemates and as restricted free agents, they were at a serious disadvantage.  Dan Fegan, Varejao’s agent, was seeking a deal similar to the one signed by Nene Hilario, which was 5 years and 50 million dollars. Varejao, while valuable for his tireless effort, rebounding, and ability to take charges, was far from a complete player and the contract discussions grew contentious.  

The Cavaliers wanted to bring Varejao back on a long-term deal for money in the range of 7 million per season.  Reportedly they offered 5 years, 35 million dollars.  But Fegan felt that if the Cavs would not meet his yearly demands, then his client would be best suited to sign a one-year deal at the midlevel and enter the unrestricted free agent market the following summer (this summer).  

Unfortunately for Fegan, Varejao’s qualifying offer (the deal a restricted free agent plays for should he fail to get an offer sheet or sign an extension) was far smaller then the $5.5 million that a midlevel deal averages.  Public posturing began from both sides, Varejao’s image was impuned by fans and the media, and in the end, Varejao and Fegan attempted to save face by getting the Bobcats to offer Varejao a contract with terms that all parties knew the Cavs would match.  Varejao got his midlevel money, but his freedom would have to wait at least two years, as the Bobcats had offered a three-year deal with a player option after the second season.  The Cavs matched and here we are today.  Most assume Varejao will bolt by next summer (hence why he’s in so many trade rumors), but such is the current state of contract talks in the NBA.

This summer, the Hawks find themselves in a similarly uncomfortable position.  Like Cleveland, Atlanta has too guys that are restricted free agents that they’d like to keep.  Like Cleveland, one of them is considered a “priority” (Josh Smith), while the other seems to be being delayed while talks progress with the first (Josh Childress).  Childress is rumored to want out entirely, and the Hawks seem unwilling to make a sign and trade happen.  

Atlanta is far too often impugned as a place that nobody would voluntarily play.  The management was killed in the press for the legal infighting.  That same infighting tied their hands to make any significant personnel moves (all stemming for dissenting opinions on the trade that brought Joe Johnson to the Hawks) for nearly a season and a half.  And the hopes of keeping Josh Smith, a homegrown product of Atlanta, are under constant scrutiny by the media.  There have been reports that Smith has a rift with Coach Mike Woodson and that he too wants out regardless of the lack of options available to him now.

Well today comes news that Josh Childress is using an offer from a foreign team to circumvent the restricted free agency process.  Olympiakos is offering Childress a 3 year contract worth 20 million dollars, but it allegedly has an option that would allow him to play one or two years of that deal and then return to the NBA to try his hand in a much more lucrative free agent market.  

Why is this bad you ask?  Well for players and agents, it’s not.  It wrestles more control away from teams and will force the NBA to have to up it’s spending to match the global trends, despite the shape of our domestic economy.  I’ve been a proponent of the collective bargaining agreement in it’s most recent form, because it has effected a positive change for small market teams.  Teams like the Cavs have seen promising talents like Daniel Gibson and transcendent talents like Lebron James sign extensions. Those NBA teams that draft well or make sound investments in free agency have an advantage in retaining their players (i.e. restricted free agency, the ability to offer the most money) and they’re capitalizing on that.  The NBA may not have the dominant major market teams that it had in the 80’s but there is much more parody amongst the upper tier teams and a fluid balance of power.

The ability for large market teams to simply outspend has gone by the wayside.  Large market teams’ fanbases will continue to hold on to the notion that stars will flock there because everyone wants to play there, but what we’re seeing in today’s NBA is that players want to play for whoever is competitive and/or offers the most money whether that’s San Antonio, New Orleans, Boston, or Detroit.  Top talents like Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Carmelo, and Howard have all returned to the teams that drafted them.  The Lakers don’t get all the talent just cause they’re the Lakers (burn in hell Rick Fox), and the Knicks, despite their efforts, can’t buy their way to the playoffs, let alone the NBA Finals.

Back to the story at hand.  Childress is blazing a trail.  And Lon Babby, when faced with the prospect of being backed into the restricted free agency corner is ahead of the curve.  The precedent is a dangerous one for GM’s around the league. Restricted free agency is now not only under assault by GM’s with cap space.  It’s under assault by foreign teams in flourishing economies with deep pockets.  Olympiakos could very well land the biggest NBA to Euroleague coup to date, and if Childress goes overseas only to capitalize in the 2009 or 2010 free agent market, then we can certainly expect history to repeat itself.

That brings me to the point.  Why, if Dan Fegan is the agent that Ric Bucher would like us to believe, didn’t Fegan find an offer from a foreign team that was better then the 2 years at 11 million dollars that he eventually settled for in December of last year?  Why if Fegan was willing to force an unprecedented holdout did he not exhaust the same avenues that Babby has?  Are we to believe that Varejao doesn’t hold the same kind of foreign interest that guys like Carlos Delfino, James Singleton, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu do?  I for one don’t believe that.  He’s from Brazil.  I’m sure the international community is painfully familiar with his game.

Dan Fegan is being shown up a year later for being the emotional and stubborn negotiator that he is. Rather then looking for the best way out for his client, Fegan looked for the best way to spin what had turned into a pissing match to his press cronies like Bucher. Rather then find a way around restricted free agency, he complained about how unfair it was.

Now Anderson is in the middle of a contract that, ironically enough, may end up being a blessing for the Cavaliers. He’s playing out his option year, looking to cash during the summer of 2009.  He likely won’t want to wait until 2010 to hit the market because it would mean a market flooded with a superior crop of talent (Lebron, Wade, Bosh) and an additional year with the Cavs.  

If Anderson Varejao wants freedom and the ability to get paid sooner rather then later, the Cavs are going to see his best effort.  And if that happens, he’ll only raise his trade value prior to the trading deadline.  Fegan on the other hand was just made to look incompetent by Lon Babby.  He let his pride drag Varejao’s holdout into December, and this year while Babby is finding solutions and trying to solve problems for his client, Fegan is just hoping that Varejao can solve the problems that Fegan’s guile created.  

I’m not bitter…. really.