With the Cavaliers still a little more than two weeks from the start of the 2206/27 regular season, number 17 has a short list in team history - but one name towers over the rest.
The jersey has been worn by four players, starting with Washington, who was the first to take it in the franchise’s first NBA season. Before arriving in Cleveland, he had already logged a few games in the ABA in 1969. His Cavaliers stint lasted two seasons and 116 games, and he averaged 6 points per game.
Smush Parker is another name tied to 17 in Cleveland, though he is far more often associated with his time in Los Angeles and with the Lakers. His rookie season came with the Cavs, and in 66 games he averaged 6.2 points per game.
But the story of 17 really belongs to Anderson Varejao.
Wild Thing spent 13 years in Cleveland and became one of the franchise’s most recognizable figures, riding through both the high points and the rough patches. His game was built on hustle and chaos. He hunted offensive rebounds, threw himself after loose balls, and led the NBA in charges drawn in 2007 while walking that thin line between flops and fouls.
Varejao came to Cleveland in 2004 in a trade from Orlando that also brought Drew Gooden. From there, he grew into the Cavaliers’ top pick-and-roll partner for a young LeBron James and became one of LeBron’s closest friends on the floor.
One of Varejao’s best seasons came in 2010, when he earned a spot on an All-Defensive team and even picked up a few votes for Defensive Player of the Year.
When LeBron left for four years, Varejao became a veteran anchor alongside Kyrie Irving and turned in some of the best offensive basketball of his career.
His Cavaliers run ended on a bitter note in the season Cleveland won the 2016 championship, when he was traded to the Golden State Warriors. Because he spent that season with both teams, he was guaranteed a ring, but he turned down the Cavs’ championship after facing them in the Finals. The next year, after Golden State won and had released him, he accepted that title.
Varejao eventually came back to Cleveland in 2021 after spending three years playing in Brazil, signing a 10-day contract so he could finish his career with the Cavs.
His place in the team’s record book is secure. Varejao ranks in the top 10 in games played, blocks, and steals, and he is one of seven players in franchise history with more than 4,000 points and 4,000 rebounds.
Today, he remains with the organization as a Player Development Consultant and Global Ambassador.
In Other News...
Evan Mobley Debate Just Got Uncomfortable For The Cavs
A speculative Evan Mobley-for-Matas Buzelis trade idea has surfaced in the kind of offseason chatter that always lands a little harder when it involves a cornerstone player. For Cleveland, the premise is uncomfortable because Mobley remains one of the leagues most valuable young defenders, the sort of player who changes the floor on that end even when the offense is still evolving. For Chicago, Buzelis is the more theoretical piece, a young forward whose appeal rests on the belief that his scoring upside can keep growing into something bigger.
The debate gets interesting because both sides can talk themselves into the basketball fit, even if the idea lives entirely in hypotheticals. Cleveland would be weighing whether to move off a proven defensive anchor for a higher-variance offensive swing, while the Bulls would be asking how much patience they have for Buzelis to reach his ceiling. Nothing about this points to real negotiations, but it is the kind of thought experiment that exposes just how delicate the balance is when a team starts wondering whether its best long-term answer is already in hand. [Read more 🡒]
Three Young Cavs Suddenly Have A Real Shot To Matter
Craig Porter Jr., Tyrese Proctor and reserve forward Jaylon Tyson are all at a stage where the Cavaliers can still reasonably imagine more coming from them. For a team trying to keep building around established pieces, young depth matters, and Cleveland has a few players who fit the kind of long-view conversation coaches and front offices like to have in-season. The appeal here is not just age, but the chance that each can sharpen a specific part of his game enough to stop being a developmental name and start becoming a dependable rotation option.
Proctor has already drawn some attention from Kenny Atkinson, who recently pointed to the guards physical development as part of his progress, and that only adds to the sense that his timeline is moving in the right direction. Porter and Tyson, meanwhile, are still in the category of players whose next step could come from simple but important growth, including greater shooting aggression and more consistency. None of it is finished, but for Cleveland, the possibility that a few young players might meaningfully matter by 2026-27 is the kind of internal upside that can shape a roster more than any outside rumor. [Read more 🡒]
LeBrons Latest Health Concern Changes Clevelands Biggest What-If
LeBron James latest health update has added another layer to the long-running conversation about what might have been in Cleveland. After leaving for Philadelphia for what is expected to be the final two seasons of his career, James is now dealing with chronic arthritis in his left foot and lower-back issues, according to an ESPN report. It is the kind of news that resonates far beyond his current team, because for Cavaliers fans it brings back the familiar mix of admiration and regret that has followed every twist in his late-career arc.
James reportedly monitors the problems daily as part of his training, and last season he missed about a month because of sciatica. For Philadelphia, the concern is obvious: availability always shapes everything around a player at this stage, from rhythm to lineup stability to the larger ceiling of the season. For Cleveland, it only sharpens the old question of how different things might have looked if this version of James, with all the wear and tear that comes with the miles, had been part of the present instead of another teams future. [Read more 🡒]