Anderson Varejao Goes Down With Ruptured Achilles, Out For The Season

The Cleveland Cavaliers will have to intensify its search for a back-up big man. Starting centre Anderson Varejao was diagnosed with a torn Achilles tendon that will force him to miss the rest of the 2014-2015 NBA season.

The development is a big blow to the Cavaliers who are bereft with quality big men. They will now be forced to start Canadian back-up big man Tristan Thompson who is more suited to play a power forward role and will be severely undersized in the centre position. Apart from Thompson, the Cavs have limited options. The team can slot starting power forward Kevin Love into the center position given that he has played the part in his early NBA seasons, or have to do with veteran Brendan Haywood and another tweener in Lou Amundson.

For the Brazilian Anderson, this is another setback in a series of leg injured that has riddled much of his NBA career. He recently signed a contract extension last summer worth $30 million for the next three years, with the final year being partially guaranteed. The Cavaliers will lose their best interior defence and one of the pick and roll partners of James and can altogether jeopardize the dreams of James to bring the city of Cleveland its first championship in all professional sports.

The team will now re-visit their exploratory talks with the Denver Nuggets and the Memphis Grizzlies to acquire the services of big men Timofey Mozgov and Kosta Koufos. Team management will have to be creative to net a big man to replace Anderson given that the team, cannot trade its 2015 pick due to the ruling that teams send out their first round draft picks in consecutive years. The team owns the 2015 Memphis pick but that projects to be in the late 20s. There are other options out there such as Jermaine O'Neal and Emeka Okafor but those bodies are still a few weeks or months away due to health problems.

"My family has sacrificed all these years," O'Neal told Northeast Ohio Media Group. "My wife's career has been on the backburner because of mine. My daughter is one of the best basketball players in the country and I enjoy watching her play. I'm even coaching my son. It's all about them at this point in my life."