How Koby Altman rebuilt the Cavs into contenders in just 3 years
By Corey Casey
Altman and the Cavs’ rebuild: The early stages
This can all be traced back to the end of the Cavaliers’ last season of the LeBron James Return era. In what was a very unpopular move the Cavs essentially punted on LeBron’s final year when they traded Kyrie Irving for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic and the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected first-round pick. Thomas was never the same, Crowder never really quite fit and after losing in the Finals to the Golden State Warriors, the Cavs were undergoing another long rebuild.
After the Nets were better than expected, the Cavs ended up using the No. 8 pick on Alabama guard Collin Sexton. James left the Cavaliers for the Los Angeles Lakers and they were off to another rebuild. Other recent teams that went from competing to rebuilding, such as the Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder, traded their stars and got multiple assets in return. By contrast, the Cavs lost their superstar for nothing when he left in free agency.
Not much went right for the Cavaliers that first year. Kevin Love missed most of the season, and other veteran holdovers from the previous years’ Finals teams were dealt away and the Cavaliers amassed a 19-63 record (tied for 4th-worst in franchise history ). The lone bright spot was Collin Sexton. After starting the season on the bench he played very well in the second half of that season as a scorer. At the very least the Cavs had a good asset as they moved forward in their rebuild.
The Cavs’ reward for going through one of the worst seasons in franchise history was a high draft pick. They had the league’s second-worst record, which tied them with the New York Knicks and the Phoenix Suns for the top odds to get the number one pick. That year Zion Williamson was viewed as the consensus No. draft pick by a wide margin. At the time the post-lottery results were pretty deflating. Most considered Zion and Ja Morant as the top two prospects, but the Cavaliers for their season were rewarded with the 5th overall pick.
With that pick, the Cavs took Vanderbilt guard Darius Garland. Garland only played in 5 games at Vandy, but in his short time he showed off the skills that made him a high recruit and why NBA teams thought he had superstar point guard potential. You saw the vision, playmaking, ball-handling wizardry and elite shooting range. You will start seeing now and a few years from now the what ifs from people about Garland. If he doesn’t get hurt does he even make it to 5 or would a fully Garland have made it more of a question about Ja or Darius at No. 2?
Nonetheless, you can make a strong argument even if the results weren’t immediate. The Cavaliers taking Garland is when things shifted for this rebuild. Garland certainly struggled as a rookie, but that wasn’t a surprise; instead of getting stronger or working on his game that off-season, he was coming off a knee injury.
It showed his rookie season, as at times he looked overwhelmed. His body just wasn’t physically ready for the NBA at that point.