The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the more active teams this offseason. Although most of their moves have been re-signing their own players, they have also been connected to many other players. Mo Williams decided to come back to the Cavaliers on Monday night, and now they are looking to use Brendan Haywood's non-guaranteed $10 million contract as a trading chip.
There were rumors recently that the Cavaliers were trying to acquire Joe Johnson from the Brooklyn Nets, but now it seems that the two teams haven't talked in three days, according to ESPN's Mike Mazzeo.
There is always a possibility that the two teams could start talking again, but there are a few reasons why this trade seems very unlikely now. First and foremost, if the Cavaliers take on Johnson's contract they would have to pay more than $100 million just in luxury taxes, according to The Big lead. Add that $100 million plus to the payroll they will eventually have and the Nets would likely be spending over $200 million. While the Cavaliers are going for it all this year, $200 million is a lot of money to spend.
Another reason why the trade likely won't go through is because the Nets don't have interest in keeping Anderson Varejao. The Nets' plan was to dump Joe Johnson and the $25 million he is owed this offseason, get Haywood back in return, then immediately release him. As far as Varejao, the Nets don't want to take him back in a trade because he is due $9.6 million this season and all of that money is guaranteed. The only way this trade would work for the Nets is if they were somehow able to get a third team involved, that is willing to take Varejao.
Varejao is working his way back from an ruptured Achilles and it doesn't seem as though there are any teams that are interested in paying nearly $10 million for a guy who has major injury concerns. At this point the talks between the Nets and the Cavs seem completely dead, but who knows what might happen in the coming weeks.
