Koby Altman just broke Cavs Twitter with weird reaction to Evan Mobley question

Are the Cleveland Cavaliers open to trading Evan Mobley this summer? When Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman met with the media on Friday for his exit interview, Altman spoke glowingly of both Mobley and Cavs center Jarrett Allen in a way that fully suggested Altman plans for both big men to factor into Cleveland's 2026-27 season and beyond.

On the other hand, Altman did have a weird moment when he was caught off guard by a reporter who bluntly asked if Altman sees Mobley as part of the Cavs' future. Altman's response to the question featured some stuttering, feet shuffling, and laughing before Altman ultimately answered in the affirmative.

The awkward interaction had some fans theorizing that Altman is hiding something about his summer intentions for Mobley. Other fans discarded the interaction as a basic misunderstanding and nothing more.

Are the Cavs secretly planning to trade Evan Mobley this offseason?

Fans who want the Mobley conspiracy to be true have pointed to Cavs owner Dan Gilbert's postseason tweet, which made it sound like a big move is on the way this summer. Gilbert wrote that Cleveland is "nowhere near where we need to be".

This message from Gilbert had ESPN's Tim Bontemps making some inferences of his own.

"I think it's fair to take some stock in what Dan Gilbert said," Bontemps pointed out. "The action of the Cavs in February [when they traded for James Harden] were that the window is now, not in three or four years. And I'm not saying trade Evan Mobley for a bag of beans. ... You need to either have Donovan Mitchell be good enough, or you need to get a player who is better than Donovan Mitchell so he's the second-best player."

An Evan Mobley trade would only make sense if it's for Giannis Antetokounmpo

Mobley has four years and $220 million left on his contract. He's 24 years old and in all likelihood hasn't reached his ceiling yet. The Cavs rightfully view Mobley as the future of the franchise, not to mention the next torch-carrying franchise player-in-waiting for whenever Mitchell's Cavs stint ends.

If the Cavs were to consider trading Mobley, it would have to be within the strategy outlined by Bontemps -- a realization that Mitchell cannot win you a title as an alpha and must therefore operate as a Robin to someone else. The only way that Cleveland would be able to make a trade for someone better than Mitchell (like Giannis Antetokounmpo) would be to use Mobley as a trade chip.

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