How Koby Altman rebuilt the Cavs into contenders in just 3 years
By Corey Casey
Altman and the Cavs’ rebuild: Everything comes together
In 2020-2021 Garland did in fact look much better from his rookie season, and Sexton continued to score in bunches, but the Cavs still struggled, compiling another 50-loss season at 22-50. Going forward it felt like the keys by the end of the year were handed from Sexton to Garland going forward. As our own Gibson Lowenberg recently did a terrific job of laying out, Sexton compares very favorably to former Warriors guard Monta Ellis.
As Gibson detailed, Ellis statistically put up a lot of points and at one point the Warriors were once very high on him. As Gibson mentioned, the Cavs like the Warriors ended up drafting a young point guard with more talent and upside, and much like Cavs eventually made Garland their new franchise player the Warriors handed the reigns to Stephen Curry.
The Cavs entered the 2021 NBA Draft lottery with the fifth-best odds. This time around after losing a tiebreaker to the Thunder, Cleveland got some luck jumping up 2 spots to where they drafted Evan Mobley 3rd overall. If Garland was the pick that started shifting things, and Allen was the savvy trade that Altman made, drafting Mobley was an easy no-brainer and was ultimately the finishing touch on the Cavs’ rebuild.
It can’t be said enough about the job Koby Altman has done in rebuilding this team. In many cases, the GM that starts the rebuild never sees it through. Rebuilds are never a guarantee to work and in most cases take 5-6 years; Altman has done it in 3 years, really. Altman got promoted to president of basketball operations during the regular season, and deservedly so.
Trading Nance in a deal for Markkanen to create the Cavs’ 3-big lineup ( originally criticized) was another move that Koby nailed , as Markkanen had a big year for the Cavs last season. Unfortunately for Collin Sexton and the Cavs they lost a 3-level shot creator when Sexton suffered a knee injury 11 games in, and they would miss his impact a number of times throughout the season.
However, with Okoro inserted into the starting lineup it gave them more of a defensive idenity. Garland had a breakout season turning into a rising young star, making his first all star appearance and one of the best point guards in the NBA. Mobley finished second in rookie of the year, while Jarrett Allen made major strides and made an All-star appearance as well, and because of that the Cavs formed one of the best young cores and surprised many with a 44-38 record.