Marreeeeeesse

Les digits drop Varejao, pick up Speights

In Part Deux of Les Digits frontcourt retooling, they have dropped 18th round pick Anderson 'Sideshow Bob' Varejao, the 6'11" Brazilian backup PF for the Cavs. Varejao is a high energy PF, and while he can score around the basket, he's more of a lunch-pail rebounder and defender than offensive beast off the bench - i.e., more Najera than Millsap. He's still behind Big Ben at PF in CLE, and his offense has been limited this year to cleanup work. He's averaging 8 and 6 (and not much else). He may improve (and may even surpass Wallace at some point), but he's not providing a lot of value at present.

We discussed Marreesse a while back when the Hosens dropped him - he's getting a fair bit of 'buzz' lately, as The Big Cheese and the Sixers struggle and Mo Cheeks panics. He scored 12 on Wednesday and Friday both (all in garbage time on Friday, however), but still is getting well under 20 MPG. He's supposed to be a shotblocker, but I haven't seen it yet.

Judgment: There's quite a run on high-upside big men right now (Maxy, Blatche, McGee, Speights). We like Speights' future, and see him gaining Coach Cheeks' confidence, but doubt he'll be a fantasy force this year. However, he's a good gamble, as Varejao's situation seems distressingly stable at this point.