Cavaliers’ president of basketball operations Koby Altman has said it a number of times since the season ended with a playoff loss in five games to the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
He has said he wants the Cavs to run it back with the same core players (the so called “Core 4”) for the 2024-25 season with a new coach in Kenny Atkinson. And after the draft and the beginning of the free agent period, he has done just that, stand pat.
Yes, the team’s perennial all-star, Donovan Mitchell, signed a three-year extension last week, meaning he could be here for four more years, but that’s the extent of the club’s transactions so far this summer.
We guess Altman wasn’t using “GM speak” in talking about the current roster.
If that’s going to be the case, it puts a lot of pressure on new coach Kenny Atkinson, because his hiring looks to be the only reason the current roster will get better, outside of the natural growth of young players.
Cleveland likes to talk about the youth of their roster, but really the only player with the potential to make a substantial leap in performance is Evan Mobley, who will be in his fourth year in the NBA. Yes, Darius Garland will turn 25 during the new season, but he has been in the league for five seasons.
How many players improve their performance greatly after they’ve been in the NBA five years?
And Kenny Atkinson is a coach, not a magician. He can put players in situations where they can succeed more, but he’s not going to make Evan Mobley a great outside shooter and he’s not going to make Darius Garland less turnover prone.
Nor is he going to make a backcourt with two smaller guards along with a small forward who is 6’5″ a defensive force.
We understand the Cavs didn’t make the trade for Mitchell until September 1st, so there is plenty of time before training camp starts to improve the roster. However, virtually every team in the league has made moves since the playoffs ended.
Outside of drafting Jaylon Tyson, Cleveland has been idle.
We have seen reports that the organization is waiting for a decision on Isaac Okoro’s contract status and if that’s true, it’s pretty disturbing. Okoro is a very good defender who is limited offensively and he’s only 6’5″.
If he’s holding up potential moves for the Cavs, well…
The current regime seems to be looking at the incremental improvement from non-playoff team to play-in tournament team to lose in the first round to winning in the first round and thinking they should stay the course.
We believe in the philosophy of every move a team makes should be gearing towards winning a championship. Falling short of that goal is a failure. Now, that doesn’t mean you can’t look at progress and think we are getting closer to the goal though.
Perhaps a big move will come in the next couple of weeks. But at the end of the playoffs (and last year for that matter), we have felt the Cavaliers needed to add size at guard and small forward, and also get a solid backup for Jarrett Allen and Mobley.
And remember, Altman sped up the winning process when he traded for Mitchell.
We don’t think they can contend for a title without more size. The front office seems to think differently.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 