FROM THE GREAT WHITE NORTH: WELL DONE DANNY FERRY!

by E. Spencer Kyte, Bugs and Cranks

D'you know who the key to Cleveland's Eastern Conference Title aspirations was this season?

No, not LeBron.

It was Anderson Varejao, the crazy-haired Brazilian hustle/energy/glue guy of the Cavaliers. All General Manager Danny Ferry needed to do this off-season was offer Andy a reasonable deal, bring him back to The Q and watch his team march to the Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics.

Anderson Varejao was the key, but he's not anymore. That ship has sailed and you can pretty much give Boston their trip to the Finals. No - Detroit, Orlando and Miami don't have a chance. Neither do my Raptors. I've dealt with it, you should too.

Danny Ferry screwed this whole thing up. Not only did he failed to surround King James with enough talent to get passed the Spurs last season, he made no improvements to his team during the off-season either. Actually, he made them worse through his standoff with Varejao and his agent Dan Fegan.

How does this kind of thing happen? Isn't there someone in the Cavaliers management team who is supposed to figure out all the possible scenarios that could transpire with the holding out Varejao and make sure they do what is best? Apparently not, because someone forgot to tell Danny Ferry that he would be screwed if another team inked Andy to an offer sheet.

Enter the Charlotte Bobcats. Desperate for bigs, Charlotte has gotten Varejao to sign on the dotted line for a three year deal worth reasonable money for a guy who didn't average 7/7 last year, yet alone double figures. Worst case for the Bobcats, Cleveland matches the offer and they're stuck with the same crappy team that takes the court like every other night.

But here is where Danny Ferry dropped the ball.

As ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher points out, Cleveland really is in a No Win situation with Varejao at this point.

If they don't match the offer sheet, Varejao walks. This will not happen. Danny Ferry isn't that stupid...

But Varejao doesn't want to be in Cleveland anymore; he feels slighted by the mediocre offer Ferry tabled during the off-season and is sure to walk after Year Two to find greener, non-Cleveland pastures. Could be worse, could be better; they get Varejao for a year and a bit, but get nothing for him after that and paid him more than they wanted to in the first place. Plus, who knows how motivated he's going to be now that he's (1) getting paid and (2) playing somewhere he really doesn't want to be. I'm from Toronto. I experienced Wince Carter. These things do happen.

Even trickier though is that while many are probably shouting "Sign and Trade," the NBA Three Month Rule on trading newly signed players nixes that from happening before the late February trade deadline.

So, in case you missed it, here is what Danny Ferry has managed to do for his team:

They now have to sign a player who has no interest in being a Cavalier to a contract worth more than they wanted to pay him. On top of that, trading him this season isn't an option because it's December and no one in their right mind is going to offer Cleveland more than 50 cents on the dollar for Varejao moving forward, knowing that he'll be a Free Agent after next season.

Well done Danny Ferry, well done. I never thought you would top yourself after giving Larry Hughes $12M a year for the next quarter century, but you've outdone yourself with this one.

Maybe for your next trick, you can extend Donyell Marshall's ludicrous contract for no apparent reason.