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Nene vs. Verejao: Perception vs. Reality

5K views 98 replies 48 participants last post by  Pioneer10 
#1 ·
Who do you consider the better player?

I notice a lot of people are behind the times and think Nene is better than Verejao. But Nene hasn't really developed his game much because of injuries, and Anderson has. Verejao has a much more complete skill set, and just seems to be the better player.

Thoughts? Misguided opinions?
 
#2 ·
They are both terrible man on man defenders. I mean absolutely terrible. Varejao's activity and hustle give him an edge when it comes to team defense, and his rebounding rate trumps Nene. The only advantage Nene has is a back to the basket game, and since no one has seen him play in a year we can't really tell the extent of his improvements. However I don't think Denver is just handing away $60 million contracts with KMart being untradeable and Camby, you have to figure he's healthy and improved his back-to-the-basket game. Right now I'd go with Varejao, but by the end of this season I'd go with Nene since I still have some faith left in NBA talent evaluators.
 
#3 ·
I'd go with Nene if he's fully healthy (If), he's more talented.

Verejao has better fundamentals though.
 
#6 ·
my boy andy of course. andy is young...more energetic...plays better defense, and hustles. he is like a 6'10 ginobili. he will do whatever it takes to win. he has already proven he is a better asset to the cavs than big z by stepping up his play against detroit. andy is also more skilled than nene, and can run the court better. i cant see nene on a championship team...but i can see andy on one. he has that thing only few players have where they can send the crown into a frenzy with one play. plus he has a better attitude an is more coachable.








Nene can dunk and make ugly faces
 
#7 ·
duncan2k5 said:
. he is like a 6'10 ginobili.
why did u just stop me from ever cheering for Andy again?

lol the only reason Cleveland is bothering to resign gooden is so they dont lose him for nothing. varejao and marshall make a good all hussle or all offense combo.
 
#8 ·
i actually like goods. he has heart...but he just needs to have it all the time. and he is a good rebounder. if he was as good blocking shots...he would be a keeper. he actually has decent hands around the basket. so i like him. he is just a headcase soemtimes. you can actually see his confidence dropping during the game. and he has ZERO defense
 
#10 ·
The Cavs are certainly in a dilemma with Gooden, because he's a really talented guy, who given the minutes could put up a really strong double double. But for the Cavs he's just a role player. So Gooden knowing he has talent, wants money, and the Cavs want to just pay for the role that he plays on the team, especially since Andy not only does that role, but also fits overall a little better than Gooden does. The main reason Gooden started last year was because Andy got injured before training camp so Mike Brown didn't really know what he had until it was too late to make the changes. But as the season came to it's close, Andy was the guy finishing games, and he had a stretch where Mike Brown was starting him and he was picking up double doubles and setting career highs left and right.

And then in the playoffs he was the one Cav besides Lebron who showed up. I believe he shot over 60 percent from the field against Detroit, and just seemed to be everywhere.

He really wants to improve his game too. His biggest weakness last year was his free throw shooting he was like 50 percent. Now if you watch him he's making 70 percent. And if it's a clutch free throw it's going in.

He just needs to develop a go-to move in the post and he'll be set.

Nene I haven't seen development out of really. Injuries have really derailed him IMO and set him back behind Andy. Plus as was mentioned, he's missing that certain something that Andy has, that can be the diffrence in a title and a good team. He does have a Ginobilli-esque quality to him in terms of will-to-win.

His dominance against Team USA yesterday was insane.
 
#11 ·
futuristxen said:
Nene I haven't seen development out of really. Injuries have really derailed him IMO and set him back behind Andy. Plus as was mentioned, he's missing that certain something that Andy has, that can be the diffrence in a title and a good team. He does have a Ginobilli-esque quality to him in terms of will-to-win.

His dominance against Team USA yesterday was insane.
That's because you haven't really seen Nene. Way too early to make that judgement.
 
#15 ·
sloth said:
Varejao, Nene is absolute garbage, not sure what everyone sees in him outside of a big body.

I doubt Nene is absolute garbage considering he was a starter/or 1st 2nd guy off the bench in the NBA til he got hurt and Varejao is like the 2nd or 3rd option off the bench. Plus no one really knows for sure until we see Nene this season.
 
#16 ·
bball2223 said:
I doubt Nene is absolute garbage considering he was a starter/or 1st 2nd guy off the bench in the NBA til he got hurt and Varejao is like the 2nd or 3rd option off the bench. Plus no one really knows for sure until we see Nene this season.
Verejao is the second best player on the Cavs. Whether he comes off the bench or not. He's the reason that the Cavs are dicking Drew Gooden around this summer. Gooden got the starting job because Andy was hurt half the year so Mike Brown didn't know how good he was. But while Drew started, Anderson finished. When the game is on the line, Anderson is in the lineup. He made several game saving plays last year. And his improvement is evident. Free throw shooting was his buggabo, but he's knocking them down.


There are two types of NBA fans in the world, those that know about Anderson Verejao, and those that don't.
 
#17 ·
Varejao probably is the second best player on the Cavs if you ignore the regular season and take it completely out of context.Ilgauskas was vastly better when he was playing well,but he has bad wheels and he doesn't fit well with the type of ball the Cavs play best.He was horrible in the playoffs and Varejao was great so everything else is forgotten.Hughes pretty much sucked relative to the size of his contract and the expectations on him.Gooden had the habit of playing his way to the bench.Varejao is second banana by default rather than design.

It isn't that great a thing when Anderson Varejao is your second best player.All the good things he does are things you need,but things you need from from your fourth or fifth best player more than your second best.This just means that the guys you are paying to be better than him aren't getting their jobs done.Anyone who watched the Cavs last year could tell you that most of their roleplayers underperformed and Varejao took Gooden's minutes because he played with effort and inspiration and Gooden was mercurial to say the least.

As for Nene I don't actually remember the last time I saw him play a basketball game.At that point I thought he was really raw and he had some potential.Hard for me to evaluate guys based on how well they sit on the bench.
 
#18 ·
The only advantage Anderson has over Nene right now is that he is healthy and playing games. Nene has been out so long that you'd be a fool to take him over Anderson. When both are healthy, it's pretty close.

Olympics shouldn't be a measuring stick though, because Anderson's game is a much better fit for FIBA. Nene is a power player who plays at the hoop, and that's a difficult thing to be with the trapezoid lanes and zone rules.
 
#22 ·
Verajao is a darned good player and people that thought little of his play until the playoffs just didn't see him play earlier. I will admit though that his impact is not necessarily shown in stats. I agree that his free throw shooting last year was a problem especially since he was generally on the floor to close out tight games. He's a player, he grabs tough rebounds, he has very quick feet for a guy his size and therefore actually gets quite a few players charging into him (oh yeah and the occasional flop as well). None of this is me taking a shot at Gooden because the two of them actually work very well together. The fact is the Cavs have 3 good PF's with different skill sets. Once Varejao got healthy (from the dislocated shoulder) Gooden, Marshall and Varejao all played just about the same amount of minutes.
 
#24 ·
Even more ridiculus than him being a second round pick is that he was traded to the Cavaliers along with Gooden for Tony Battie and 2 second rounders.
 
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