Re: Anderson Varejao is our untouchable
Here's some stats to toss in to the discussion:
Andy's per36 numbers this year, show that his blocks are down (0.8) from last year (1.2) when he seemed to really be trying to transition from a flopper to a blocker - but that just gets him back to typical for the rest of his career.
His steal rate is up, scoring rate up, FTA's up, ORB up, DRB up, AST up. His Turnover rate is also up which could be related to him being used more offensively, or to all the passes heaved at his knees.
Of course somebody on a team has to grab rebounds - a board that Andy snags is a board that Jamison won't, the question is do they grab their share as a team?
They Cavs are currently 13th in DRB% in the league, and 7th in ORB% so indeed we're above average in both categories - and way up over last season.
In addition offensive rebounds are all about beating the opponent to the boards. We averaged 10.4 per game as a team last year shooting 43.4%. We're at 12.2 per game this season with 43.1% shooting.
Summary:
Statistically speaking Anderson is having a career year. There's no evidence of a performance drop off. Whatever he's getting by on, is working.
Saying that, I don't think anyone on the board has a problem with selling high ... as they saying goes, we're just haggling over the price.