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Report: Cavs Trade Anderson Varejao to Portland, Jared Cunningham to Orlando for Channing Frye

A trade that has been rumored for at least a few days has now come to fruition. Anderson Varejao will head to Portland. Jared Cunningham goes to the Magic for Channing Frye.

The Cavs will send a conditional first-round draft pick from 2018 to Portland and Cleveland sends a 2016 second-round pick they hold from Portland to Orlando.

One of the biggest factors of this deal may have been that by trading Varejao, the Cavs created a $9.6 million trade exception. Sam Amick of USA Today reports that the Cavs can use the $10.5 million trade exception from the Brendan Haywood trade of July 2015 to absorb Frye’s $8.2 million contract.

Varejao spent his whole NBA career in Cleveland, playing 12 seasons with the Cavaliers, but injuries hampered him in recent years.

Varejao was only playing 10 minutes per game, appearing in 31 games this season, averaging 2.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.

Cunningham was the fourth point guard on the depth chart and did not receive much playing time when the other three point guards were healthy.

Frye has a history with Cavs’ General Manager David Griffin from their time together in Phoenix and is a stretch-four, who can back up Kevin Love and hit threes.

He is averaging 5 points and 3 rebounds per game this season, shooting 39 percent from beyond-the-arc.

There’s still a chance the Cavs move Iman Shumpert and/or Timofey Mozgov, but it looks like the rumors of Love being moved are not going to happen, according to several reporters, including Brian Windhorst and Jason Lloyd.

The Varejao, Cunningham swap for Frye makes some sense from the standpoint of rotations because Varejao and Cunningham were getting little playing time and Frye can step in and play backup power forward to Love. Since Tristan Thompson has become starting center, the Cavs have not had a consistent backup to Love.

The trade obviously has some financial significance for the Cavs. The move also means there will be two open roster spots for the Cavs to sign players who are bought out by their teams and become free-agents.

Players to keep an eye on include Kevin Martin of Minnesota and Joe Johnson with the Brooklyn Nets.

The latest report is that the Portland Trail Blazers will waive Varejao and acquire Brian Roberts from the Miami Heat. If the Cavs wanted to re-sign Varejao, it would have to be one full calendar-year from now.

Matt Medley is co-editor at NEO Sports Insiders, covers the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland Indians and high school sports in Northeast Ohio. Follow @MedleyHoops on Twitter for live updates from games.

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