Anderson Varejao

[roozy]

Andy has been pretty terrible on the defensive end. Not living up to that contract at all.

 

[CSF]

Not if this should be concern at this point but Andy's rebounding from last year is down nearly 40%. Team rebounding is down 4 boards a game from last year. So it's not like LeBron and Love are sucking up all Andy's stats .Team FGA and % nearly the same from last year.

 

[NasstyNate]

Not if this should be concern at this point but Andy's rebounding from last year is down nearly 40%. Team rebounding is down 4 boards a game from last year. So it's not like LeBron and Love are sucking up all Andy's stats .Team FGA and % nearly the same from last year.

His REB% is way down too at 13.3%. Still early, but worth keeping an eye on.

 

[Cavatt]

I'd love to find out more about this. I'd like to see Coach Nick explain it. It's very hard to understand rebounding dynamics in the game. Seeing the rebounding from the NO game was really disappointing from our "big 3" rebounders. Luckily Lebron picked up some of the slack.

I don't worry about Andy's rebounding too much as he has never really relied on athleticism. It's not like he is losing it. I think his rebounding has gone down just as Tristan's defensive rebounding went down when he played with Andy last year. There is a lot of competition with Love now. Don't forget he has been accused of taking rebounds away from his own teammates before. There are only so many.

 

[CSF]

Something is not adding up and I'm not buying that Love is stealing Rebounds from AV. Love is also down 2 boards a game. I'll do more research

 

[BimboColesHair]

Something is not adding up and I'm not buying that Love is stealing Rebounds from AV. Love is also down 2 boards a game. I'll do more research

People are stealing rebounds from everyone, which is part of the reason. Shoot, we currently have 4 players grabbing 6 or more boards a game (only us and Portland can claim that in the entire NBA). Last year, looking at players who played 50 games with the team, Minnesota had 2, we had 2. The other reason is that teams are shooting 48% from the floor on us, which will bring rebounding #'s down.

 

[Kizzle]

Sample size too small guys. Keep in mind we've played Bulls and New Orleans TWO AMAZING REBOUNDING TEAMS

 

[Simmy]

I'd have to agree with @Kizzle. Just like every other team-based statistics which impacts individual statistics, it's still to early to properly gauge the rebounding percentage ratio from last year to this year.

More importantly, the makeup of the team and the roles of each player have changed so drastically that Andy naturally seems to be changing his game to accommodate the thriving Tristan Thompson and the always aggressive Kevin Love.

Last season, Andy was heavily relied upon as the sole rebounding hustle man until TT hit his stride towards the second half of the season. I'm also be curious to see his numbers during games played with Bynum if anyone has them. It's only natural that his rebounding stats from last year would be skewed in comparison to his output this year, given the change in responsibilities and reliance on other rebounding weapons.

 

[All4One1ForAll]

Andy's defense has been pretty bad so far. Hopefully it improves.

 

[kovanovich]

Yes, the sample size is too small, but the fact of the matter is the team is not rebounding. They have a negative rebounding differential (-0.8 per game) and their rebounding rate is below 50%. So it's not because Love is stealing all the rebounds from everyone else. I expected the guards and wings might see a decline in their defensive rebounding numbers and/or rate on the assumption that Love's outlet passing ability would likely cause some players to leak out early, as we saw with Corey Brewer in Minny.

Varejao, the point of this thread, has been part of the problem. In raw numbers, he is now rebounding below average for a center (only 10.5/48 minutes), after having been an elite rebounder in recent years.

LeBron's average is down from last year, though he is still slightly above average for a SF (he is at 8.1/48).

Love is down (at 12.8/48), though still above average for a PF.

Kyrie, historically a good rebounder for a PG, is down (3.4/48).

Waiters, historically an anemic rebounder, is now among the worst rebounders in the NBA (2.2/48).

Marion is down from last year, but still very solid (8.9/48), plus he has been playing more on the perimeter at SG, which would deflate his numbers.

Even Thompson's rebounding is down (12.5/48), despite playing a lot of minutes at center. More specifically, his defensive rebounding numbers have plummeted.

These numbers are partly due to lack of opportunities -- Cavs are tied for second to last in opponent FG% and so there simply haven't been as many missed shots (at least by the other team), but that's not the only reason.

Anyway, to bring this back to Andy, given the across the board decline in rebounding, his numbers may be less of a cause for concern. There seems to be a deeper reason.

 

[CSF]

I'm getting this narrowed down and sadly it keeps coming back to AV and LeBron don't mesh together as one would think.. TT needs to go and we need a true center with AV coming off the bench. Zeller would have been nice 4th big with TT gone and rim pro C

 

[westsidebob]

I'm getting this narrowed down and sadly it keeps coming back to AV and LeBron don't mesh together as one would think.. TT needs to go and we need a true center with AV coming off the bench. Zeller would have been nice 4th big with TT gone and rim pro C

You know, if you want to look at numbers like rebounds, it might also be good to look at shooting percentages and number of shots taken per game.

Cliff's Notes version - Opponants this year are shooting 48.1% from the field and 78% from the line compared to 45.3% and 75.5% last year. The Cavs are also, amazingly, shooting worse from the field this year (over-reliance on the 3 ball?).

The result? 6 less missed shots a night, meaning 6 less rebounding opportunities. Also, the shots that are missed are on the Cavs side of the court, which have a lower chance of being rebounded by Cleveland.

Last year, the Cavs rebounded 42.2% of missed shots, opponents 40.6%. This year, it's 41.1% vs. 41.9%.

So the Cavs aren't rebounding as well, but it looks to me like it's a function of allowing opponents high percentage shots, not that they're getting outspaced, outworked or out-chemistried.

 

[Kbiz]

Regardless of his rebounding rate, i still think paying a 32 year old 30 million over 3 years, who's game relies on pure hustle, was a little short-sighted.

I love AV...i want him to retire as a Cav...I just can't believe, at this point in his career, he is worth that much. It was more of a past-appreciation contract vs. what he is worth currently.

 

[Kizzle]

Regardless of his rebounding rate, i still think paying a 32 year old 30 million over 3 years, who's game relies on pure hustle, was a little short-sighted.

I love AV...i want him to retire as a Cav...I just can't believe, at this point in his career, he is worth that much. It was more of a past-appreciation contract vs. what he is worth currently.

Well if that's what you want for AV then I guess this contract makes it a 110% chace of him him retiring a Cav.



I don't get he contract either tho, other than it being a pat on the back thnx for staying with us deal. And if its that im down because I'm pretty sure we gave him an oppritunity to decide if he wanted to get traded and he said no

 

[Cassity14]

I think a lot of people are overlooking the third year team option on the contract. Would I have extended AV for two more years at 10 per year coming into this season? Absolutely.

It's up to AV to earn that third year. Who knows, if the team wins, he might just hang it up.