Varejao Ready For starting Duties

[Glen Infante]

I like the idea of Varejao starting. For one, he's a scrapper. He eats up offensive boards and dives for defensive ones. He goes for the block everytime and doesn't make his opponents make easy baskets.

He annoys the opposition. He is so wild, and crazy out there. Anyone that faces him from the start of the game will have frustration problems from the beggining.

His offensive moves aren't that bad. He doesn't have a jump shot, but he will work his way inside the hoop as he did numorous times this season.

If we keep Z, he is going to need a fast defensive minded player next to him for the majority of the game. Z isn't a very good defensive rebounder, putting AV next to him will put the burden away for Z to reach for every ball that comes off the basket when Drew doesn't box out.

Basically, put any PF next to Z and he will shine.

The concerns...

Yes AV is erratic, and he will most probably rack up 3 fouls before the half with starter minutes. To solve that, I would just start the game off with him and replace him with Drew after fouls start to occur.

As for Drew.

He is a beast, his talent isn't going to go away whether he starts or not. It's up to him if he wants to perform better off the bench, and thats the only way it's going to happen. Drew is very sensitive and very self councious it seems. But he has to realize that this team's bench is very weak offensively, and if he is told that he will be the team's 6th man, then I would probably bet that he will live up to the offer.

Drew is a 15/10 guy easily, but I see AV as a 10/12 guy with starter minutes. It's hard to say he isn't ready to start because the season just ended. Make that assumption in October.

 

[E-Light]

Drew would accept it. He may not like it, but he'll accept it, especially if we get a coach in here who has a great track record. I wonder how much the organization believes in Andy, since there were rumors he was considered a core part of the team, while their were trade drew rumors.. If Drew pouted about it he could always be trade bait, I think it would be a good test to find out how much team there is in drew, and how much of drew is me. We want winners, and those people will sacrafice for what's best for the team.

Snow proved he was a winner.
McInnis proved he wasn't a winner.
Drew did good this year when he got benched, but you'd wonder over a long period of time if drew would accept his role, or believe he was too good for it.

 

[Glen Infante]

I think Drew would accept the role if his minutes weren't dramatically decreased. I would vote for Drew off the bench but with more minutes than AV. Sorta like RickyD does at Boston.

 

[aaronr]

I didn't see any evidence this year that Gooden is a whiner. To the contrary, when he was on the bench and the Cavs were playing well he was always up and cheering them on. Frankly, I thought he handled being jerked around by Silas and chastised by Lebron pretty well. I think he could handle coming off the bench as long as he got decent minutes. But whether he starts or not, he needs to cut down on stupid plays, bulk up a bit, and start punishing players who penetrate the middle rather than stepping aside.

 

[King]

I think Drew would accept the role if his minutes weren't dramatically decreased. I would vote for Drew off the bench but with more minutes than AV. Sorta like RickyD does at Boston.

I like that idea. AV probably fits better with the starting lineup than Drew so he can play with the starters. While Drew can provide some scoring and rebounding off the bench and still be happy because he is getting his minutes.

 

[TheAdmin]

AV has a long way to go before he gets close to starting rotation. He is scrappy and has a non stop motor but he has glaring weaknesses.

Larger players bully him down low. He has no back to the basket game and is very weak as a spot up jump shooter. As much grief as Gooden gets about being a bonehead Varejao makes just as many mental mistakes in fewer minutes.

 

[E-Light]

AV has a long way to go before he gets close to starting rotation. He is scrappy and has a non stop motor but he has glaring weaknesses.

Larger players bully him down low. He has no back to the basket game and is very weak as a spot up jump shooter. As much grief as Gooden gets about being a bonehead Varejao makes just as many mental mistakes in fewer minutes.

I am displeased with the Varejao weaknessses of this post. :chuckles:

Larger players bully him down low.

Yes, in the post players like antoine walker, and elton brand are able to back him down low because he's not very strong, but varejao's huge wingspan still disrupts their shot, reminds me of marcus camby back a few. This is the big difference between gooden, and varejao on the block, while both get backed down, varejao can still block, and challenge the shot when he is at a disadvantage in the post, while gooden can only take the punishment and not recover to get a hand in the offenders face. I was very happy with varejao's over all post defense this year.

He has no back to the basket game and is very weak as a spot up jump shooter.

varejao has been working on the drop step on the block, and when he would get the ball deep he did show some raw talent. his jump shot needs to be refined, but has been effective from 12-15 feet.

As much grief as Gooden gets about being a bonehead Varejao makes just as many mental mistakes in fewer minutes

I have a big problem with this statement. Varejao every once in a while made bad decisions, but very rarely did he miss rotations( gooden constantly missed rotations, and that became a staple of goodens game defensively), and I thought AV was very effective offensively, very rarely did you see him jack up an off balance jumper, very rarely did you see him get charges called against him, and very rarely did you see him make bad passes.

 

[Karma]

Ben is right. Varejao is still very raw and mistake prone. He "gets away with it" as he is just full of energy that it just comes down to playing with too much enthusiasm. Not bagging the bloke, but he has many things to work on before he is a +20mpg guy. Patient post guys can work Varejao over, but in time Varejao will be able to combat this.

 

[NarlCavs]

I'd keep Varejao on the bench for now. I like the energy he provides as a bench player coming in. You need that type of spark off the bench.
Varejao still is raw in many areas of his game. There's not much of a post game and his shot needs work. Even with all the effort he gave he did still miss rotations defensively at times.
I'd keep Gooden as the starter for now. Despite his mental mistakes he does possess a lot of ability and has a much more rounded offensive game than Varejao.
If Z isn't back than Gooden's offensive ability will be needed in the starting lineup.

 

[King]

Ill agree with you guys that he may not be able to start yet. But I think he will eventually be the starter over Gooden if Z is back. Z and AV would be a good combo that compliments each other well imo. He does need to work on his offensive skills and could probably use a lot of time in the weight room. But AV seems like a hard worker and I think hes gonna improve greatly over time and overtake Drew.

 

[CleveRocks]

Wild Thing will start eventually AS LONG AS HE DOESN't GET HURT because he has a steady work ethic, gives all during his minutes and is coachable.

 

[CavsTalk]

I like his energy from the bench.. also I mean if he gets nearly equal minutes with Drew I don't see the problem. I think we will be fine next year there is a lot of "if" involved, but I think the main thing is going to be is work on our depth by getting a young pg, proven scorer, and hopefully some help behind Z, but even if we loose Z... Anderson will not start unless there is an injury either way... I am optimistic about next season, but not about Anderson starting