Cavs’ Koby Altman: ‘I Don’t See Big Major Sweeping Changes’

May 24, 2024

The Cavaliers are coming off a season in which they got to where they expected to go. That would be the second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, before losing to the Boston Celtics in five games.

So it would be no surprise if the Cavs try to mostly run it back, with only minor changes to the roster. Frankly, sometimes it’s best to let a team grow together, learn together and eventually, win big together.

Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman suggested that could be the approach this offseason — despite the many rumors, some of which are downright wild.

“I don’t see big major sweeping changes. I just don’t,” Altman told reporters, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. “Like I said, more data speaks to [how] this works than it doesn’t. You can’t win 99 games over the regular season, make it to a conference semis and be like, this doesn’t work.

“Again, this was just year two of this iteration of this core being together and I have a lot of excitement for the future for this group and belief in this group.”

One big change has already taken place, with the Cavs firing coach J.B. Bickerstaff after five-and-half seasons. The search for his replacement has already begun.

The next order of business is to see if star guard Donovan Mitchell signs a four-year, maximum contract extension. The Cavaliers reportedly are optimistic he’ll do just that.

But they don’t need to be optimistic that their core gets along and believes in bigger things. The Cavs already know that much.

“The other piece that the outside doesn’t see is you meet with every player and they have a really strong belief in the core of the group and their fellow teammates,” Altman said. “They think they can win here. There’s a lot of camaraderie and belief and they like each other and so it’s hard for me to glean anything other than how do we pour more into the group that we have?

“Sure, there’s some moves you can make around the peripheral, but what are the levers we can pull? What can we tighten up? Where’s our upside? Where’s the low-hanging fruit in-house to elevate this thing? … There’s a lot more in-house than I need to find out outside of this building. There’s a lot of belief in our players and each other in this organization, and so I don’t see the need to make sweeping changes.”

Altman became GM in July 2017 (eventually having his title changed to president of basketball operations). He has steered the ship since LeBron James departed for the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, with the Cavs making the playoffs in each of the past two years.

While things have been a little clunky after the All-Star break in both of those two seasons, it appears the Cavs are hoping a coaching change will fix things. Beyond that, yes, we may see nothing more than a few minor tweaks to the roster. No less than the man in charge said so himself.