When a trade looks like it will lead to disaster when it's made, then leads to that disaster as everyone knew it would, it's time for someone to be fired.
To be more direct: Koby Altman deserves to be fired after the James Harden trade.
Cleveland must fire Koby Altman
Moments after the Cavaliers were eliminated by the New York Knicks, swept out of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion, is not the time to make rash decisions. Firing Altman, however, is far from a rash decision.
That is because the trainwreck that just occurred in front of Cleveland faithful at Rocket Arena, the 37-point beatdown where the Cavaliers never even showed up, was something everyone could see coming. From the moment that Altman traded for James Harden, bitterness and pain were heading Cleveland's way.
He was not wrong for looking at a starting backcourt of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell and concluding that they were too small, too defensively challenged, too injury prone to win a title together. He was right.
Trading for James Harden was a disaster
His solution, however, was to trade for a 36-year-old guard whose entire career has been defined by a lack of effort and playoff disappearances. James Harden is the ultimate example of a player who is extremely talented and yet gets less out of that talent in the postseason because of a lack of effort and heart.
That is exactly the problem the Cavaliers needed to solve after their playoff losses over the course of the Donovan Mitchell era. And yet time and again, Altman made "good" moves on paper that failed to address that problem. And in the biggest move of them all, he traded an All-Star point guard for the ultimate "no hustle, no heart" player. Their Achilles heel became an Achilles everything.
There have been some great moves during Altman's tenure. He has made savvy trades, signings and hirings. Jaylon Tyson looks like a slam dunk pick at No. 20 two drafts ago. Sam Merrill and Dean Wade were home runs off the scrap heap. The core players are all extremely talented.
Yet this team lacks something real, and adding James Harden to the mix was always going to end in failure. Year after year, in high-pressure situations, Harden disappears. He stops shooting, or he forgets how to dribble, or his jumper starts looking like Ben Simmons. For a player who already is a defensive disaster and does none of the little things, that is enough to destroy a team.
Trying to build a rotation around Harden broke Kenny Atkinson, who started babbling about Harden's defense like he was Scottie Pippen. Trying to shore up the back line broke Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Trying to motivate Harden broke Donovan Mitchell. And opposing teams just attacked Harden on both ends of the court, and the Knicks proved to be altogether too good at it.
It all leads back to Altman. He should have never talked himself into trading for James Harden, and he should have never convinced Dan Gilbert to go for it. It was a mistake that the team and the league could see coming a mile away, and it cost them a shot at the NBA Finals.
Fire Altman. There is no chance this franchise can trust him again.
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