Cavs: 3 takeaways from Koby Altman’s Friday media availability
By Dan Gilinsky
#1: Patience/Fit are the biggest key with the next HC
Based on media reports throughout the second half of the season and from what Altman said Friday, Cleveland wants its’ next head coach to be the right fit; that relates to them willing to stick around for the long haul to fully turn things around over several years and eventually lead the team and its presumably youthful core back to relevance.
Altman seems to understand that this process is exactly that, a process, and that it’s not all going to happen in a short period of time. That mindset from him was illustrated by a few tweets from Basketball Insiders’ Spencer Davies.
Altman says rebuild won't happen overnight and #Cavs have to find a leader to "obsess over the process."
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) April 12, 2019
Altman doesn't want to put expectations on #Cavs. Says they're going to have a "grit and grind" work ethic and compete. Committed to everyday growth and not so much the outcome.
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) April 12, 2019
Two names that seem to be good fits and are “extremely early favorites” to be the next Cleveland Cavaliers head coach due to their player development background and ties to Cleveland are Utah Jazz assistant Alex Jensen and Denver Nuggets assistant Jordi Fernandez, according to Sam Amico of Amico Hoops.
Both of them were prior head coaches with the Cavs’ G League affiliate, the Canton Charge, too, as Amico touched on.
Altman did essentially say that Cleveland will undergo a long process and is going to cast “a wide net” when it comes to its head coaching search, though, and is going to be “super sensitive” when it comes to interviewing possible candidates that are currently employed on postseason teams, for the record.
The second takeaway from Altman’s most recent presser is that to him and the organization, perhaps the most important attribute going forward is work ethic, and he emphasized how he was more than satisfied with the way Cleveland’s players, along with Drew, kept at it in 2018-19 all the way until the end.