Cavs: Koby Altman is looking like the right fit for the job

Since being promoted to general manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the summer of 2017, Koby Altman has been faced with a tough task; rebuild the squad for the post-LeBron James Era. That’s the second one of those at least.

His first job as the general manager was to deal with Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers’ irate superstar who was looking for a trade. There were plenty of trades out there that at the time, looked to be better than the haul that the Cavaliers had received.

In the end, the Cavaliers had traded Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the main component, the Brooklyn Nets’ 2018 first-round pick Boston had.

This move allowed the Cavaliers to stay competitive as well as have a headstart at a rebuild if LeBron were to leave. In fact, LeBron was a big component to this as Koby Altman was hesitant to make moves including this pick since LeBron wouldn’t commit to the team.

We would quickly learn that the team that was constructed didn’t work and the roster would soon be gutted. The Cavaliers would trade players and in return, they received Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson, and George Hill, as well as other assets near the 2018 deadline. LeBron would leave in that offseason to the Los Angeles Lakers and thus began the rebuild.

From there, the deals/picks Altman has made have ultimately played into him looking to be the right fit for the Cavs in his position.

With the eighth pick from the Nets, Altman and the Cavaliers took Collin Sexton who looks to be a star in the making.

This season, Sexton is averaging a career-high 25.5 points and 4.0 assists per game, shooting an efficient 51.7 percent from the field and 45.8 percent from three-point range. He has a good chance to become a first-time All-Star this season.

Koby would look to get rid of some of the veterans on the roster, making moves like trading George Hill to the Bucks for Matthew Dellavedova and a Bucks first-round pick and trading Rodney Hood for cap fillers and a couple of second-round picks. These trades would give Altman assets to make a future trade, in hopes of acquiring more talent.

One of those future moves was using four second-round picks and cash to acquire the draft rights to Kevin Porter Jr. during the 2019 draft, via deal with the Detroit Pistons (who had the pick via the Milwaukee Bucks).

Porter Jr.’s time with the Cavaliers was short-lived due to off-court issues and he has since been traded to the Houston Rockets for a future-protected pick that has a slim chance of conveying (top-55 protected). ESPN’s Bobby Marks also reported further details involving that, and you can view the reported ones from before at the aforementioned link.

https://twitter.com/BobbyMarks42/status/1353349456608034825?s=20

Anyhow, the Porter Jr. move by Koby Altman was still a fantastic one despite the ending seeing as Porter Jr. has the potential to be a franchise player and the Cavaliers were able to get his right for little value.

In this same draft, the Cavaliers had taken Darius Garland with the fifth pick and Dylan Windler with a first-round pick they had acquired through a trade via the Houston Rockets. Garland has really come on this season and the pairing of him and Sexton emulates that of the backcourt duo for the Portland Trail Blazers.

The selection of Garland was a pick influenced by then-head coach John Beilein, who was signed to seemingly be a short-term option and with the mindset that then-associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff would take over as head coach once the transition was made.

Bickerstaff has already placed his mark on this team, establishing a culture and bringing in the right players to feed into that culture. Over the last year, Altman’s philosophy has been about fit.

Last season, he traded bench players and a second-round pick to the Detroit Pistons for Andre Drummond, which has given us an All-Star-caliber big for what looks to be the remainder of this season, or could be. Granted, given rumors/reports, it appears that Drummond could very well be moved by the March 25 trade deadline, and he’s on an expiring deal.

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Plus, last season Altman also traded Jordan Clarkson to the Utah Jazz for Dante Exum and multiple second-round picks, a move that gave the Cavaliers a backup guard as well as more assets.

During the offseason, Altman made it clear that a wing position was of need and took Auburn wing Isaac Okoro with the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft, a player who will gel well alongside our backcourt and buy into the system Bickerstaff has put into place.

Lastly, using pieces he has acquired over the years, Altman was able to include the team into the blockbuster James Harden trade and acquire Jarrett Allen and Taurean Prince, trading away Dante Exum and that Milwaukee Bucks 2022 first-round pick that was acquired in the George Hill trade.

This deal gives the Cavaliers their center of the future, assuming he eventually is locked up this coming offseason (he’s set to be a restricted free agent), of which Allen almost certainly will be, it seems, and another tradeable contract in Prince was added. That’s if the Cavaliers don’t intend to keep him long term.

All of the deals have put the Cavaliers in the position that they are in now, sixth place in the Eastern Conference with a shot at making the playoffs for the first time without LeBron James on the roster since the 1997-98 season. Altman’s deals all come with a plan, to accumulate assets in hope of pairing them together to make a big move.

Altman’s deals have rarely included franchise-altering pieces being moved, other than the Kyrie Irving trade, and most of them have already paid off.

With all of this in mind, it’s safe to say that Koby Altman was the right fit for the job and should garner respect, not only from Cavs fans but from the national media, too, with how he has been able to turn this franchise around.