Cavs Insider

Koby Altman On Cavs Trading Darius Garland: I Don't See Why We Should

The Cavaliers president of basketball operations delivered his end of season press conference on Friday.

Spencer German

May 5, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) celebrates with
May 5, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) celebrates with / Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports

Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman has his work cut out for him this offseason.

First, he'll dive head first into finding a new head coach for the franchise. Later, he'll attempt to sign star guard Donovan Mitchell to a four-year, $208 million max contract. Whether or not Mitchell agrees to the deal will drastically impact what direction the organization goes this offseason.

While many believe the duo of Mitchell and former All-Star Darius Garland just cannot equate to championship caliber success, Altman seems to feel differently.

Speaking at his end-of-season press conference, Altman made it clear that splitting up Mitchell and Garland isn't something he and his staff feel they have to do.

"I don't see why we should," Altman asserted. "An the same thing goes [for the] fit of the Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen. Tthere's a depth of talent here that's really, really good. And when you look at the landscape of the league and how long, like 82 games, we can't discount [the impact of] injuries.

"...I know people want to talk about the fit I push back on that in terms of just the net ratings, but I also want to talk about the depth of talent here. That's really good that keeps us alive when we have to go through some injury spells."

RELATED: Why Did The Cavaliers Decide To Dismiss J.B. Bickerstaff?

In fairness to Altman, the Cavaliers did deal with an exuberant number of injuries this season. During the regular season both Garland and Mobley were down for an extended period of time with injuries. In the playoffs those roles became reversed as Allan and Mitchell both dealt with injuries that kept them out of numerous games.

Still, there seems to be some redundancies between both those duos, but particularly Garland and Mitchell who are two under-sized guards who are at their best with the ball in their hands. Altman, however, looked to the advance numbers to push back on the idea that they can't co-exist.

Koby Altman meets with the media for his end of season press conference
Koby Altman meets with the media for his end of season press conference / Spencer German

"I think that's overblown," said Altman. "I think there's way more data that speaks to it works than doesn't. In the last two years combined, because they've been together for two years, so over the last two years, including the playoffs they are net positive plus five together on the floor. Everyone wants to throw out the first year together when Darius actually had one of the best years of his career. He wasn't an all-star, but he actually had more efficiency and that was with Donovan. They [also[ have a great relationship on and off the court."

Despite the outside noise, Altman was leaned in heavily to the idea of continuity in regards to the current construction of the roster.

"I think the other thing that we have to realize is that this is just year two of this iteration of this team," he said. "When you look at some of the most successful teams over the past decade that had real success in the playoffs, they've had a long run at this thing. Going back to Golden State that's been together for 12 years at Core, we look at Milwaukee that's been together almost 11 years ... Boston, I want to say seven years together and they're still knocking at the door, right for that championship ... Obviously Denver, when you look at Jokic and Jamal Murray for eight years.

"We're just in year two of this iteration and we got to a conference semis, we're not content with that, but there's a lot of runway left and there's a lot of learning left to be with this core and listen, I think this pairing has a chance to be really successful together and the data speaks to that over the last two years."

The weeks ahead will determine how Altman and company really feel about the pairing of Mitchell and Garland. For now though, it appears the powers that be are at least considering a path forward that involves staying the course.

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Spencer German

SPENCER GERMAN

Spencer German is a contributor to the Northeast Ohio cluster of sites, including Cavs Insider, Cleveland Baseball Insider and most notably Browns Digest. He also works as a fill-in host on Cleveland Sports Radio, 92.3 The Fan, one of the Browns radio affiliate stations in Cleveland. Despite being a Cleveland transplant, Spencer has enjoyed making Northeast Ohio home ever since he attended college locally. 

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