The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Anderson Varejao tore his Achilles tendon in his left foot and is expected to miss the rest of the season, the team announced Wednesday.
Varejao was injured during the third quarter of Tuesday’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. He went down without being touched, and an MRI Wednesday morning revealed the tear.
It’s a crushing blow to a team with championship aspirations and will likely kick what was already an active trade season into overdrive. The Cavs will turn to Tristan Thompson as the starting center, but their only remaining backups are little-used veterans like Lou Amundson and Brendan Haywood and rookie center Alex Kirk, who has spent much of his time this season in the Development League.
The Cavs have been looking for a center through trade since last summer. They remain high on Timofey Mozgov of the Denver Nuggets and Kosta Koufos of the Memphis Grizzlies, but neither of those teams have shown much interest in moving either player.
“I let my agent worry about that,” Koufos, a graduate of GlenOak High School, said when the Grizzlies were in town last week. He is represented by Cleveland-based agent Mark Termini, who is also affiliated with Rich Paul and his Klutch Sports Group.
The Cavs’ most appealing draft asset is a future first-round pick from the Grizzlies that could ultimately become a lottery pick. That pick was mentioned during talks for Mozgov last summer, although there was little traction on either side toward a deal. The Cavs are free to deal that pick at any time, but they cannot trade their own first-round pick in the upcoming draft because they’ve already dealt their 2016 pick away to the Boston Celtics in a trade last summer.
League rules prohibit teams from dealing away all of their future first-round picks in consecutive drafts.
The most appealing player the Cavs could trade is Dion Waiters, who has performed appreciably better in recent games. He is averaging 14.7 points and shooting 48 percent in his past nine games after a difficult start to the season.
The team seemed resigned to the fact in recent weeks they might have to deal either the Memphis pick or Haywood’s appealing contract for next season (or both) to get what they need this year. Haywood has a $10.5 million non-guaranteed contract for next season, which the Cavs at one time were hoping to parlay into a high-salaried star. But now that they have three max players already on the books, there is concern they won’t be able to maximize the full value of Haywood’s contract this summer and might be better off trading it during the season to another team with more cap flexibility.
The injury is another devastating blow to Varejao, whose seasons have been ended by significant injuries in four of the past five years. He has battled knee problems, a fractured wrist and a split quadriceps muscle that led to a blood clot. But at 32 and already showing signs of slowing down, this could be his most difficult injury to overcome.
He ends the season averaging 9.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. He cooled considerably in recent weeks after a torrid start to the season when he was shooting better than 60 percent from the field.
The Cavs’ most effective lineup thus far, according to advanced stats, is Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, LeBron James, Shawn Marion and Tristan Thompson. That lineup outscores opponents by more than 30 points per 100 possessions. That same lineup using Varejao instead of Thompson is only outscoring opponents by three points per 100 possessions.
The Cavs have tinkered with lineups featuring Love at center and might have to do more of that in the interim, at least until they find help either through free agency or in a trade.
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