Stein: Cavs have offered Varejao for Channing Frye

There has been much more smoke than fire as Thursday’s NBA trade deadline approaches. The latest report, from ESPN’s Marc Stein, makes that smoke a little thicker. The Cavs have reportedly made an Anderson Varejao-for-Channing Frye offer to the Orlando Magic. Frye and Varejao are the principals, anyway; other pieces could be involved.

ESPN sources say Cavaliers have made an offer featuring Anderson Varejao for Channing Frye in an attempt to pre-empt Clippers' deal for Frye

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) February 18, 2016

The contracts would allow for a simple one-for-one swap, per ESPN’s Trade Machine. Varejao’s contract is nonguaranteed in 2017-18, and partially guaranteed next season. Frye has two years left on a four-year, $32 million deal. The Magic have made one trade already, sending Tobias Harris to Detroit in exchange for Brandon Jennings and Ersan Ilyasova.

Frye has also been linked to the Clippers, as Orlando and L.A. were reportedly nearing a deal Tuesday night.

The 6-foot-11 Frye has played for four teams over nine years in the NBA. This season in Orlando, he has averaged a shade over five points and three rebounds in just 17 minutes per game. He is an established outside threat (39 percent on threes in his career) and presumably more nimble than Varejao is these days. He would give the Cavs another legitimate shooting big, and he has shown some shot-blocking ability when given extended minutes.

Trading Varejao would mean sending Cleveland’s longest tenured athlete, in any sport, out of town. While this deal would not be an enormous shakeup on the court, losing Andy would be something of a big deal off it.

Word is that the Magic do not intend to accept the offer.

I'm told the Magic don't plan on accepting the Anderson Varejao-for-Channing Frye offer from Cleveland that @ESPNSteinLine reported.

— Sam Amick (@sam_amick) February 18, 2016

Per Yahoo’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Magic are not interested in taking on Varejao’s contract. The Cavs could absorb Frye into the trade exception created by the Brendan Haywood trade, but that would send the team’s luxury tax bill further into the stratosphere. That could open the door for a third team to take on Varejao’s contract.

The Magic have no desire to bring back Anderson Varejao’s contract in a deal, league sources said. Varejao’s deal includes two years and nearly $19 million guaranteed. The Cavaliers are searching out teams with space, such as Philadelphia and Portland, which could take on Varejao’s contract as part of a three-team trade, league sources said.

Those teams would likely be compensated with draft considerations and cash to take on Varejao. For this reason, the Cavaliers won’t take on Frye without finding a home for Varejao’s deal: Those two contracts together on Cleveland’s roster would push the team’s luxury tax bill from $61 million to nearly $96 million in 2016.