INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman is still processing the team’s latest playoff flameout.
There’s a mix of pride, disappointment, hurt and belief after a record-setting 64-win season came crashing down in the Eastern Conference semifinals — a 4-1 series loss against the Indiana Pacers that had players discussing a need to look in the mirror this offseason.
The mirror test extends to the team’s front office.
What did the postseason reveal about their championship chances? Are trades needed to take the next step? Can a team with a bloated salary cap remain competitive in the face of new restrictions and financial penalties? What will it take for regular season success to translate in the playoffs? How does the team balance patience _and_ urgency? Any regrets about handling the injuries to Darius Garland and Evan Mobley?
Altman addressed all those questions and more during his annual 45-minute exit interview with reporters at Cleveland Clinic Courts Monday afternoon.
**On the postseason loss:**
“Obviously, we feel it. It’s raw for us. We’re disappointed how it ended. But it was a remarkable year on so many fronts and you guys were all invested in this. We’re not going to go anywhere. We’re going to keep fighting for that championship and this window is wide open, we believe.”
**Why he feels the team can still win a championship as currently constructed:**
“I love our foundation. I love our core. Our starting lineup, the average age is 26.8. We have two All-Stars that are 25 and 23 respectively and they’re going through it, they’re going through these experiences, they’re going through these battles and we’re sustainable in a lot of ways, not just because guys are under contract, but our youth. Our belief in this group in a lot of ways, there’s a newness to this group as well in terms of our new head coach that’s been with us for one year. Us figuring out our offensive identity happened this year and so I’m really high on and optimistic about our future. That being said, it can’t just be 82 games. We have to figure out this next 16, we have to figure out how to get over the hump. But this group has shown they can play some of the best basketball in the world. It’s how do we do it on the highest stage and continue to keep pushing to get over that hump?”
**What has chairman Dan Gilbert said about the tax and salary restrictions?**
“No restrictions in terms of going into the tax. We haven’t been a tax team in a long time. I think with Dan and Grant and the Gilbert family, I think we take for granted how much they bring to the table and not just the financial resources that they give us. I think what’s been incredible in terms of this process from a rebuild to perennial playoffs to trying to get to that next level is their patience, but their positivity and player engagement. It’s been remarkable to work for the family because even when I’m upset and going through it, they keep the process of how we’re going to continue to get better and the tax is just a part of that.
“We’re really fortunate to have Dan and his support. His optimism, his positivity. Fail fast, get up quick, that’s all been ingrained into us and that’s been a part of this culture. We’re fortunate. We’ll get into how deep we’ll go into the tax. Obviously, the new CBA creates some challenges for us, but he’s going to be unwavering in his support.”
**Are you willing to be a tax/second apron team?**
“Yes. If we need to go there.”
**Do the Cavs need to be tougher? Can that be learned or does it need to come externally?**
“So that’s an interesting question because I think there’s a mental toughness that you have to get through going through these failures in the playoffs. I think people speak to the physicality and it was a physical series against the Pacers, but watch every single series, they’re all physical, they’re all grabbing, holding and they’re all pushing from afar. This was different because it wasn’t like we were getting shoved around. We went into this playoffs saying we want to win the possession battle, and we did that in large portion. We doubled the Pacers in offensive rebounding. You think about those intangible hustle stats, we had 70 offensive rebounds and they had 35. So, this wasn’t just push us around, we’re not tough enough. There’s a mental toughness that we’re going to have to get to that a lot of the Pacers had, a lot of the Pacers had that experience of conference finals.
“Pascal Siakam was a champion, second best player on a championship team. You think of the years that Myles Turner has been through and all the playoffs he’s been to. Now he’s been to two conference finals. We haven’t got there yet. I think at the end of some of those games, taking out Game 4, I think that’s what we saw. They made those winning plays at the end and as much as we won the possession battle and dominated the possession battle throughout the playoffs, that one foul line blockout in Game 2, that’s a level of focus and winning that we have to get to. It’s going to eat at us. It’s going to haunt us. But I just want to be careful on the toughness piece. It’s physical. Of course it’s physical. They picked us up 94 feet. They beat us up. Our point guard wasn’t healthy and we couldn’t handle that pressure. A lot of the times that’s part of it. But if you want to talk about the toughness and intangible hustle stats, we actually won that battle. I think it was the mental piece and we’re going to get there as we continue this pursuit.”
**Whether he believes players prefer to keep the roster intact or make changes:**
“I think we were all disappointed. There’s a hurt. It’s still raw, it’s hard for me to watch playoff basketball right now. I still think we should be playing, but these are the experiences that you have to go through to get to that next level. And it happens. I mean Oklahoma City last year, number one team in the West, lost in the second round and this year they got over that hump, Game 7, and it’s incredible job by them sticking with it. You keep going down the list of Denver’s core that they’ve kept together and finally breaking through for a championship, took seven years of the Celtics to break through and win a championship.
“This is year three for the Core 4 and they’ve had incredible success, right? Playoff success needs to come next, but I think there’s an internal belief because of what we proved this year during the regular season and what we’re capable of to run it back and see what we can do. But it’s not just running it back. It’s another year of Kenny (Atkinson). Look, we had the second best offensive rating in the history of the NBA this year as a group. That’s a new identity for us, and we kept and maintained our defensive identity at the same time. There was a newness, a freshness this year. I know this is Year 3, but there’s a newness, a freshness that we’re going to take into next year having failed again in the playoffs and knowing how much that’s going to hurt. And we’re going to get over the hump. This group’s going to get over the hump.”
**On avoiding an overreaction from another playoff loss:**
“If we were going to be reactionary, it would have been last year after everything that was written about that group, and all the rumors and all this and that and we stood pat and look what happened, right? I think the same thing now as you lean in even more to what we’re building, the culture that we have here, the internal growth, the youth, the sustainability of that.
“I think there’s a championship window that we have here that’s wide open and that’s one that we’re going to try to pursue next year and the year after and the year after and so forth. We’re not done by any stretch. But I would say if there was a time that we were going to crumble it potentially would’ve been last year, certainly not after what we’ve seen from this group this year is something where were we are going to break up a group that’s been together for three years and has accomplished what they’ve accomplished and is ready to take that next step. As disappointing as this ending was.”
**Does mental toughness extend to players fighting through injury?**
“There’s a level of misfortune that we had this year, only because I feel like we navigated the regular season so well with injuries. This was by far and away our best year from an injury standpoint or prevention. I’ll actually call it prevention standpoint with the plan we laid out, with how Kenny used the bench to alleviate minutes throughout the year, Darius played a career-high 71 games, you had Donovan in the 70s the first time for us, 71 I believe, Jarrett Allen played 82 games, Evan was at 71, I believe. So that led to incredible regular season success. The misfortune certainly with Darius’ toe and Evan played through injury, to your question, even though he sprained his ankle pretty bad. I’m not using this as an excuse at all, but there’s a reason that there four conference finalists have zero rotational players missing. Zero. Knicks, Pacers, Oklahoma City and Minnesota. Zero rotational players missing.
“When you get to this level and it’s the highest level of basketball and you’re not 100% and you’re chasing it, that impacts you. I think the hard part was, the plan that was laid out over the course of the year was phenomenal from a performance standpoint. The year before we were limping into the playoffs and we didn’t want that, we didn’t want that. So, minutes come down, let’s elevate them at the end of the year. Let’s have some ramp up even though there’s some time off in there, but let’s be our best as we’re heading into the playoffs. And we were in the first round, and I think there was some misfortune that we had, but we can’t point to that. I think that’s the intangible toughness. When things get tight, how do you get that foul line rebound? How do you get the ball in? That’s what I’m looking towards. I think that’s going to end up winning games and series and you can’t give away playoff games. You can’t give away Game 2. That’s going to haunt us forever. And that last minute, minute and a half, you can point to a few things where we need to be tough and I think everyone would agree with that.”
**On the possibility of keeping Ty Jerome:**
“Love to keep him. I mean, listen, we’re hopeful. I would say that I got to be careful ‘cause he’s going to be an unrestricted free agent, and he is ours, so we can talk about Ty in that vein. Part of Kenny’s system, which is, again, we’re always going to be rooted in player development, which is great. And so when guys find that confidence in this system, their value gets driven up. Same thing with Sam Merrill. You want to call these guys end-of-bench players before that have become real rotational players and valuable within the ecosystem, not just us.
“I think the good news is those guys are going to be, they’re going to do really well for themselves. And the good news also is that we know because of our program, we’re going to be able to continue to develop our end-of-bench guys to become rotational guys. That’s going to be part of our evolution and also how we navigate some stiff penalty taxes. We have to continue to develop from within. And those two stories are incredible success stories from the development programs and putting them in a position to be successful. And so, yes, we’d love to keep Ty, but we’ll see what the marketplace holds.”
**Does Jarrett Allen still fit with the core?**
“I think Jarrett’s the easy target, right? Let’s point to Jarrett in Game 5. When he wasn’t his best, I think he’d be the first to tell you that in that space that’s where you need to elevate his level. But we all kind of did, right? We all need that mental toughness to get Game 5 \[at\] home and force the series back to Indy. But you have to have some toughness to play 82 games and play every single playoff game. You play 91 games for the season, and I think he’ll tell you Game 5, how do we all turn that screw to be even more hyper-focused and better? And certainly rebounding is part of his job. We’re not denying that. Game 4 we kind of throw out. We just got absolutely obliterated. That’s a different story. But Jarrett remains incredibly important to us, and we’re not a 64-win, one seed without him.”