Cleveland Cavaliers: Anderson Varejao Is a Keeper for the Cavs

The complete rosters for the NBA All-Star teams have not come out yet, but when they do, Anderson Varejao's name should be on it.

The Cavaliers' center is having a great season—far and away the best of his career. He's averaging a double-double with 10.4 points and 11.5 rebounds per game. Those rebounding numbers place him fourth in the league, and his 4.7 offensive rebounds per game are the best in the NBA. His scoring numbers actually rank him 10th in the league among centers.

But numbers, though they say a heck of a lot, don't even come close to telling the whole story of Cleveland's "Wild Thing."

It's about the heart and hustle that he brings to the court every game. This is a guy who made hustle plays—whether it was grabbing a huge offensive board or diving for a loose ball—late in the fourth quarter of each of the Cavs' games against Celtics to keep Cleveland's chances alive.

And while we're talking about the Celtics games—he had a 20-20 game! People don't just roll out of bed and have 20-20 games. It takes a full game of hard work and never letting up...and the Celtics not respecting his jump shot.

He's also already established a palpable chemistry with rookie Kyrie Irving. They run the pick and roll together like they've been doing it for years. We haven't had a pick-and-roll duo in Cleveland this good since LeBron and Boozer. Now I'm not saying they're that good by any means, but they do have a knack for being in tune with each other's tendencies and moves.

It's just fun to watch.

And have I mentioned the best thing about Varejao?

My wife loves him.

Anything or anybody that can get my wife to actually sit down and watch sports must be something special. And I better be careful what else I say because she might just read this, seeing as how I wrote about Varejao.

But I digress.

The issue that is coming up is whether or not the Cavs should look to trade Varejao. He probably does have the most value of any player on the Cavs. And the Cavs are in the market to get more assets.

But, I wouldn't trade Varejao.

In my opinion, his value to the Cavs is greater than anything we could get in a trade. I think he's a better center than anybody you're going to get outside of the Top 10 in the draft. And you're not going to find a team drafting that high that wants a guy like Varejao.

His suitors are going to be playoff teams that want to add a veteran big guy who plays great defense and rebounds like a madman.

So, since those teams' draft picks don't hold enough value, the only thing I would take in return is a young wing scorer. Think Rudy Gay.

I'm not saying that the Grizzlies would even do that deal, but I am saying that I wouldn't trade Varejao for anything less than that.

He's only 29 years old. He'll still have several good years left in him by the time the Cavs are ready to contend in the playoffs again. And Varejao is exactly the guy that you want on your team in the playoffs.

He might be the only guy on the Cavs besides Irving that I wouldn't consider trading. No one else is good enough to be off limits.

But not Andy. He's a keeper.

You can follow Benjamin Flack on Twitter @ClevelandFlack.