Toronto Raptors: Andrea Bargnani to Be Traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers?

There have been some rumors airing that the Toronto Raptors are going to trade center Andrea Bargnani to the Cleveland Cavaliers in exchange for center Anderson Varejao. Where these rumours started, personally I have no idea, but there is no reason as to why the Raptors will be willing to trade away their franchise player.

Andrea Bargnani is the face of the Raptors franchise and still has four years remaining on his contract. He is also the leader in points per game for the team. On the other hand, Varejao is the main big man in Cleveland and is not as gifted offensively as Bargnani. On the upside, Varejao is the better rebounder and defender in this case, but Bargnani is better overall.

Let us look at the stats for both players in the rumors:

Andrea Bargnani: 21.2 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.7 APG, 0.8 BPG

Anderson Varejao: 9.1 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.1 BPG

Obviously, we see that Bargnani is the much better player compared to Varejao, although Varejao averages more rebounds by almost double the number. But at the same time, Bargnani averages more than double the number of points that Varejao averages.

Cleveland is a horrible rebounding team, meaning rebounds for Varejao come easily. On the other hand, the Raptors' power forwards bring in a huge number of rebounds, especially when Reggie Evans is playing.

If both teams were to complete this trade, then the Raptors will be losing offense but adding defense, and the Cavaliers will be adding offense, and adding defense. And although Bargnani is currently a weak rebounder, there are rumours spreading about whenever Reggie Evans is in a much healthier state, then he is going to work with Bargnani in rebounding, meaning this trade would be even more useless for the Raptors.

This trade has a low-percentage of happening since Bargnani is in the Raptors long-term plans and also has much more potential than Varejao. If this trade were to happen, the Cavaliers would be the obvious winners and the Raptors would be the obvious losers, and by a huge margin.

Thanks for reading, and leave your thoughts and ideas on the trade rumors. Happy New Year GUYS!