Report: Cavaliers granted $4.9M exception after Varejao injury

The Cleveland Cavaliers may finally be getting some help.

Rendered terribly thin inside after they lost Anderson Varejao for the season to a torn Achilles tendon last week, the Cavaliers have been granted a disabled player exception to help replace him, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.

A disabled player exception can be granted to a team when a player is deemed by an independent NBA doctor to be out for the duration of the season. The exception allows a team to sign a free agent to a one-year contract or trade for a player in the final year of his contract, up to a salary of 50 percent of the disabled player's salary, up to the amount of the league's mid-level exception.

In this case, the Cavs receive an exception worth half of Varejao's salary, giving them $4.9 million to play with. The team has until March 10 to use the exception to sign or trade for someone, though they'll need to clear a roster spot in order to do so.

The obvious hole to fix is inside, where the Cavs have little to no rim protection. They've been said to be looking for help in that regard for some time, possibly using the $5.3-million traded player exception they have from the Keith Bogans trade.

It's not immediately clear which big men may be available on the trade market, but the free agent market is thin beyond Jermaine O'Neal, who may not be interested.