Cavaliers' Bold Motivation Behind Blockbuster Trade Revealed

Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman had plenty of reasons to keep things the status quo with his basketball team this week.

Entering Thursday's NBA trade deadline, the Cavs sat atop the Eastern Conference with the second-best record in the league. They also boasted the top offensive rating in the NBA (121.5) and a top 10 defensive rating (111.5), two key trademarks of a championship caliber team.

Despite all that, Altman didn't rest on his laurels and presented with an opportunity to improve his team, pulled the trigger on a deal that sent Caris LeVert and Georges Niang to the Atlanta Hawks for versatile wing De'Andre Hunter.

The bold move by Altman proves just how motivated he is to win a championship.

"We're all in, we're trying to win this year and into the future, and that's the goal," said Altman of the deal. "And so that's our priority and that's our motivation."

The Cavaliers have experienced some playoff success in recent years. Two years ago, even losing in five games to the New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs felt like a step in the right direction. That linear success continued in 2024 with the franchise advancing to the second round, where it lost to the Boston Celtics in five games.

In stepped first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson last summer, and a nearly identical Cavs roster has soared into another stratosphere. Altman didn't want to see the opportunity wasted, though.

"We've had some elite wins, we've had some tough losses against [the Knicks and Celtics]," Altman said. "This is when you get to a seven-game series against, you name the team, giving Kenny every tool in the box to use to win that series.

"And De'Andre can play small, he can guard fours, he can guard some fives, or you can switch with him, and then you can move him to the two or three. This just gives you a chance to move stuff around the chess board and be able to play multiple different ways in a playoff series, regardless of what that matchup could be."

Hunter's added versatility is likely to come in handy in April, May and potentially June. That doesn't mean pulling the trigger wasn't difficult.

So much has been said about the chemistry of this Cavaliers team. Losing guys like LeVert and Niang could have threatened that. It was something Altman considered before signing off on the deal.

"You don't start off 15-0 without chemistry, great continuity and great vibes," said Altman. "But at the end of the day, my job is to help this team get better and we can't just rest on our record. We can't just rest on chemistry and good vibes. We got to get better and it's an arms race in the east. It's very competitive and we know that this is not going to be easy, and so we wanted to set ourselves up with the best chance to be successful."

Cavaliers' Bold Motivation Behind Blockbuster Trade Revealed

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