Cavs promote Mike Gansey to GM, and 3 others promoted in FO as well

The Cleveland Cavaliers have gotten things moving forward this season, thanks largely to progression internally in recent years from draft selections, and their trade acquisition last season of Jarrett Allen has been instrumental.

With how he’s been able to help the club accumulate assets, and at times cash in over time on them down the road, it wasn’t necessarily surprising when the Cavaliers promoted then-General Manager Koby Altman to President of Basketball Operations.

From there, it was also recently reported on Wednesday, first from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, that Cleveland promoted Assistant General Manager Mike Gansey to the General Manager position Koby Altman had been in before.

Shortly after Wojnarowski’s report, the Cavaliers had more in a team release with announcements from Altman.

In that, Altman stated that the team promoted Brandon Weems to Assistant General Manager, Jason Hillman to Vice President of Basketball Operations and Jon Nichols to Vice President of Basketball Strategy and Personnel. Weems had been the Senior Director of Player Personnel, Hillman had been the Basketball Chief of Staff/Team Counsel and Nichols had been the Senior Director of Strategy and Research.

The key takeaway here is that the Cavs promoted Gansey to GM, who has been with the team since 2011.

Regarding Gansey, he first started with the Cavaliers as an intern in 2011, after he retired from basketball, following when he was a standout at West Virginia and played a few seasons overseas and in the then-NBA D League. Since, most notably, Gansey was last Cleveland’s assistant GM since 2017, and has helped Altman and company from a scouting perspective, and as the team release said, with personnel decisions.

At this point, the former Olmsted Falls high star in Gansey will have an increased role seemingly when it comes to drafts ahead, and for context, he and Weems have been crucial for Cleveland on the draft front in recent years. So that will continue to play out for the foreseeable future, one would imagine.

Furthermore, Gansey previously had a very successful tenure with the Cavs G League affiliate, the then-Canton and now-Cleveland Charge, where he was the club’s GM for two seasons, and the Director of G League ops for three. As the team release pointed out, Gansey was the G League Executive of the Year in 2016-17.

So with his prior experience and success with the Charge in mind, and with Gansey having long been a member of the Cavaliers organization, it wasn’t really shocking that he would eventually be promoted to GM. That was also natural with him having such a close relationship with Altman and the team, and with Altman recently having been promoted to President of Basketball Ops, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com pointed out, too.

It’ll be intriguing to see how Gansey and the front office, and Altman aligned with that, continue to hopefully move this up-and-coming Cavaliers team forward in the near future.

And even with the Cavs not set to have a first-round pick currently in the 2022 NBA Draft, with part of the Caris LeVert trade with the Indiana Pacers in mind there, I do still believe their San Antonio Spurs second-round pick could bring in a rotational contributor in time.

We’ll of course have to see if the Cavs kepe trades from here, which have made a difference for them in recent seasons, and I’d hope Gansey and company can find ways to keep both LeVert (extenstion-eligible this upcoming offseason) and Collin Sexton (restricted free agency this coming offseason) around long term.

In general, though, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert and the team moving forward with continuity, of all things, has been a breath of fresh air of late. That’s with how the team has turned a corner this season, and gradually accumulated quality pieces through the draft and other ways; keeping head coach J.B. Bickerstaff around long term will make a difference, too.