Koby Altman | Post-Trade Deadline Media Availability | 2.8.2024

Koby Altman | Post-Trade Deadline Media Availability | 2.8.2024

Jump right into questions all right Chris and then uh Serena can follow hey Kobe how’s it going hey Chris hey so um every team in the East top seven made at least one acquisition ahead of today’s trade deadline except you guys um how did you keep from allowing that other activity to impact

Your own decision making I think we’ve always been hyper focused on on us um ever since the off season um I think for us you know the bulk of the work was done uh in the off season and we really wanted to address our shortcomings we felt from last year’s playoffs and so

You know uh free agency was a big uh point of focus for us uh to make some valuable additions and then also internally we had some really good development uh this offseason and into the season as well and so while those aren’t Acquisitions at the deadline um

There CER cly really important parts of our roster and and we’re really really happy and pleased uh with how we’ve been playing um and sometimes you know me I’m I’m very active and do a lot of volume but um sometimes don’t want to mess up a

Good thing and so we’re going to roll what we have and and we’re excited about the group ultimately what went into your decision um to not make a deal today well I think a few things is one you know reing grating Darius Garland NE mbly um if you want to call that our

Trade deadline Acquisitions are pretty good um you know there there’s there’s going to be um you know some time to re acclimate them once we get off the minute restrictions and so already thinking about those challenges is a lot when you’re adding that level of talent

To a team that’s been playing so well um so thinking about adding another addition to that finding a successful path and minutes for an addition um um just didn’t seem like the right thing to do at this at this point in time especially with how we’ve been

Playing Serena go ahead and Joe Von can follow just to follow up on that real quick Kobe how much did the how well you guys are playing right now um factor into the decision- making not to make any moves I think it’s a combination of of the results and then also uh the

Talent level on the roster and how they’ve been playing right so individually when you go down the the list of guys that we have acquired you know from Max stru to George Nang and then when you look at uh the internal development that we’ve seen from M Dean

Wade from an Isaac okoro from a Sam Merl that was in the g-league was in our g-league team last year and developed him over the course of the summer in our summer league roster and um through the injuries uh realized that he can be a really key contributor uh for this

Roster and so um It’s a combination of the results but also see seeing um how the additions around our core have really started to um Captivate a city to be honest with you um and and certainly have our trust and and certainly our admiration moving forward what have you

Made of this stretch of games and and the streak that you guys are on how well you’ve been playing we haven’t gotten to talk with you about that yeah it’s it’s it’s interesting I haven’t been able to like to take a step back but because we’re still rolling right now and and we

Want to keep it rolling but when you hear you know first first in franchise history um you know 15- one and best start and calendar year and all that kind of stuff um it does give you pause you know to to to realize you you’re one of the best teams in basketball and

That’s what we’ve always set out to do um have a sustainable roster um you know a roster that’s going to be well built for now into the future I can compete for um long stretches during the season and hopefully compete uh for playoffs and ultimately a championship and so um

Seeing this team come together is really really gratifying and exciting Serena Joe go ahead we building off of that um since you traded for Donovan I feel like you’ve been pretty cautious when it comes to um expectations on this organization uh but given how you’ve played for the last two months and the

Decision that went into not making moves um today do you feel like this team has enough is this team a contender can you catch Boston can you play into May and and maybe even June Joe so I think two things one um when we did acquire

Donovan we wanted to make sure to your point of level setting the expectation that it wasn’t Championship orust certainly not last year um and it’s not this year either um but we do think that we have the talent level to compete with the best I think we’ve shown that we had

You know this year and last year was able to compete with the best best teams in the league um and we’re doing that now uh we’re we’re still young um you know obviously uh playoff experience is something that we need to to to to add

To this group um and and go further um you know what I mean past first round or rounds of the playoffs those are really hard the NBA is really difficult the parody is difficult uh but we feel we’re right in the mix of some of the best

Teams in the world right now and and we’re going to continue to compete for that and then my father I know it’s only two games uh the last two games but what we’ve seen from Evan he’s doing the things that he used to do defensively and now he actually is playing on the

Perimeter a little bit if this is who Evan is you know you mentioned re acclimating him as like kind of one of your deadline moves if this is who Evan is the rest of this year how much does that change the team Evan so he’s 22 years old um and

We’re going to see the best basketball of Evan uh moving forward not just this year but into the future he’s going to continue to evolve he’s going to continue to get better um you’ve seen him after practice work on his shot um at nauseum to the point where we have to

Kick him out of the gym um this will happen and it’s gonna but it’s going to happen on his terms when he’s comfortable doing it and sure we want him to continue to shoot more threes um but just having Evan back in the full we are an entirely different team uh he’s

An incredible player um he’s selfless and he he has such winning habits um to have him on floor and yes the evolution of his game will come um but we’re not rushing it he is just an incredible player to have um and as he continues to evolve we will continue to get

Better Tom Withers thanks Sam hey Kobe good to see you pick you first Tom what happened I’m dealing with the brown stadium and some other things so you know how it goes hey um you mentioned it before for the um every deadline is different right and there’s different

Variables this year for your guys and the circumstances are unique in general though Kobe um with the playin game with with the buyout Market has that changed the way you view the deadline in general is it different now than it’s ever been um it’s it’s different I think for

Us we did make a deal last year as well um and many can point to that as maybe we should have added at that deadline I think this is a little different for us I can focus on us um like I said the bulk of our work was done in the

Offseason um you know I think we will certainly um you know monitor the buyout Market you know is there a depth piece in there to help has to be character fit as well one thing that I really love about this group is they genuinely do love each other love playing for each

Other and for the city and so you don’t want to mess with that um at all you know that continuity that vibe that energy that they’re playing with in the locker room um so it would have to be a fit um but this year was a little different and again you know the

Acquisitions I like to say of Darius Garin and Evan mle made it made it a lot different to to St Pat since you mentioned it I’ll dovetail off the chemistry it it feels very real Kobe when we’re around your guys um do you feel like the adversity really

Galvanized this group and and made it even stronger two two things one um you know there was a lot of Silver Linings in in the injuries um um you know obviously finding the depth bench uh the the the depth that we have on our

Bench was part of it um but two we have to acknowledge Donovan Mitchell was playing the best basketball of his career um he’s one of the best players in the planet you know you look up and you look at his stats he had the best year of his career last year and you

Look up this year and he’s has career highs in points rebounds assists and Steals and this is what I want to make sure that we get across is you know D mitell is making his teammates better right and that’s the Testament of a great player and so what you saw over

The past you know six to eight weeks was an MV MVP caliber player elevating uh the franchise elevating his teammates um and really I mean captivating an entire city on on top of it so um you know him and then Jared Allen uh who a little disappointed that he’s not uh in the

All-Star game um you know we we used to think that um you know winning was a precursor to being on the All-Star team and and you know where we are now second in the East we thought we deserve to um certainly Jared was a huge part of of

That as well but um just want to make sure that everyone understands you know how special Donovan really is for us and and what he’s becoming League wide I don’t think it’s talked about nearly enough thank you Spencer Davies going on Kobe hey um just a curiosity

Thing from how a general manager and a president approaches a trade deadline you see these other teams around you make these moves but you’re focused on what you’re doing internally of course how do you kind of balance that when it when it comes to the trade deadline and

And whether or not you make moves or or maybe possibly alter your plans at that point I mean you’re tracking everything um you know you’re monitoring the Wes the Shams the Chris haes of the world world and and and seeing what’s what’s going on um you’re putting up on your

Board you’re changing rosters you’re looking at the outlooks of teams from a financial standpoint um and you’re bringing it back to your strategy you know your strategy for how are we going to make this sustainable what does this look like for us um and and also realizing that you you can only control

What you can control and I do know and you know Chris was in the locker room yesterday um the sentiment from the guys are meaningful to me and and when they’re saying we have enough and when they’re saying that you know we’re excited about the group that we have

That’s meaningful to me um you know outside of our projections outside of how we forecast from two to three years down the road um you know this group is really locked into the present and how we continue to get better and so I’m good with that and we can’t control

Everything that’s going on around us um but I can also from a subject subjective standpoint uh feel the human people um and I’ve felt that a lot recently from our guys and when you look at the makeup of your team and how things have changed and the offense obviously being a little

Bit more different than than it’s been in the past how important is it that this team’s able to play that kind of you know that kind of jaal and hide you know there’s that one side that can get you know kind of down and dirty and do

The grinded out style but also as we’ve seen the last couple months has just been able to to fire up threes and really play that that fastpaced game yeah we really wanted to be able to diversify our offense our plan of attack no thank you I really want to give um JB

A ton of credit um and his coaches have a ton of credit navigating the early adversity of the season um certainly with the injuries figuring out uh the way to play really successful basketball um you know and and really sort of changing how we play we had the

Personnel to do it um and so figuring out a way to get up those threes and play at a faster Pace um a lot more spacing out there and so you know really want to give JB credit for elevating the talent level that’s been on the roster

And now we’re 10 Deep legitimately 10 Deep um and so we can go deep to the bench we can play different ways um you know I love that we can slow it down the half court and have two all World Dynamic ball handlers with play creation

Um we could do you know we can toggle those and do the one5 with Shooters around them um you know there’s different ways we can play for sure Spence and so that’s the exciting part and that what that’s what went into the offseason how do we diversify our attack

How can we play multiple different ways um and constantly put pressure on the opponent if everyone could just make sure they’re muted before they ask a question that would be great um Danny Cunningham hey Kobe um you’ve mentioned internal development a couple of times I’m just curious how important has the

Internal development of Dean Wade Isaac aoro and Sam Earl Off the Bench been for this recent success it means the world I mean it means the world for us you know when we sat out to uh rebuild um this roster and this franchise we we’re going to do it

Through the draft and Player Development and that’s still a really big Focus for us how we track that how we manage to that how each player has you know its own plan has their own plan from performance to basketball to nutrition to Wellness um each player has their own

Specific plan to get better and their own metrics to get better and if they buy into that they’re going to get good they’re going to get good because we’re g to pour endless amounts of resources into their development and so um you know when you have a Dean Wade an

Undrafted story like Dean Wade that’s now contributing to the roster it’s huge you know Sam Marl 60th pick in the draft bounced around um first pick in the G League Draft by our then uh G League general manager Brendan Yu um and the story continues on into a summer league

You know Summer League finals and championship and now he’s uh on the roster and contributing uh greatly to Our Success um Isaac has been you know since day one we drafted him at five we knew his work ethic he was going to continue to plug away plug away plug

Away and every single year has gotten better at his shooting and now you have to close out to him um so yes these are huge success stories um this is what’s going to help us be sustainable into the future um we’re not going to have a ton

Of draft picks and and we’re not going to have caps space and so you’re going to have a core that’s really really talented obviously um of Allstar level players and then that group around them we have to continue to pour a lot of resources into make sure they can uh

Continue to be great complimentary pieces um and help us win games this is more of a League wide question but you guys are one of a number of teams that don’t have a ton of draft Capital specifically in the first round how do you think that has changed

The way that teams have operated across the NBA on a day like today you see a lot of uh creative things happening around the league you see people shading their pick swaps as opposed to just their first round picks uh you see a lot of second round picks going out um you

See players that could still be on rookie sale contracts that um in lie of a first round pick um is is valuable so there there’s a lot other there there’s more resources out there um than than people know about other than first round picks but so many firsts have been

Spread out around the league and have gone out in recent times um so you have to sort of get creative you have to navigate um around that and so for us when you you know have a undrafted player like Craig Porter Jr that’s gold right that’s that’s a gold mine for us

And we have to continue to develop those guys internally when we don’t have the draft Capital like like you mentioned Jimmy Watkins hey coob you mentioned uh getting Darius and EV re acclimated and what while they were out the other guys got acclimated playing a different sort

Of style how do you make sure that everyone’s as comfortable as they possibly can get Darius and Evan back to where they want to be but also make sure the guys who Shine without them are feeling okay in their roles it’s a good question I think um one we we just got

To play more we got to play minutes together as a group um and have continuity have that starting group um get out to good starts um and still make sure and JB says this you know be obviously be a star in your role um but um you know make sure that everyone is

Showing up and playing the best of their ability with their minutes and it’s going to be hard it’s going to be a little choppy I don’t think we’re going to get to um you know consistent minutes for Darius and Evan until probably the allstar break right after Allstar break

Hopefully we lift all these minute restrictions and we’re back to fully healthy and that’s when we’re going to start to see a real hopefully knock on W that we’re not no we’re healthy but we’re going to see a lot more consistency in the rotations uh and minutes and then I think um everyone

Will get a little more comfortable when you know exactly when you’re coming off the bench you know exactly what minutes are coming um that’s when you get more um you sort of more comfortable but right now you know it helps to be winning as well right it helps to be

Winning I think that everyone is bought into their role because of the the wins and and how much how fun it is and it could be anybody’s night any given night um we have guys off the bench that can help you win games and that’s really

Exciting as well so it’s be it’s hard to scout us you know it’s hard to scout us when this deep um and this talented how do how do both of those guys once everyone does get all their their feet under them how do both of those guys fit into the team within the

Context of the stylistic pivot you guys made you know playing a little faster shooting more threes that yeah know I think you we still getting up a ton of Threes with with with Evan and Darius back I think we hit 23 threes the other game um which is close to a franchise

Record so um you know we’ve always wanted Darius to take more threes so he fits we want EV to take more threes so he fits and he can pass look these are two selfless um All-Star caliber players you know and and they’re going to fit in

To what we’re doing um they’re not going to detract from what they’re doing and again um it’s a great problem to have to try to figure out how to reing gratiate Darius Garland and EV Moy um it’s it’s a great problem to have so we’re GNA

Continue to try to keep our Pace we’re trying to continue to keep um you know launching our our three balls um but but you know to to a question posed earlier I think by Spence like we can go we can play some half court basketball we can

Slow it down we can we can defend at a high level and so um we’ve proven to be successful at both and so you know if we go Trend a little bit a certain way for a game that’s okay Evan de hey Kobe how are you he you have um

So you hadn’t touched this before you didn’t want to mess up a good thing as you said how underrated is just that chemistry aspect because it can be a bit of a fragile thing if you maybe make a move that could disrupt the flow is was that something that at least you and

Your staff had in mind when it came to approaching this deadline yeah and and you always take feedback take feedback from the coaches take feedback uh from the players obviously I’m around I get the the look and feel of the team um from a day-to-day basis we’re obviously

In the trenches um so you have that that human component to it um but no like you know one of the hottest teams in basketball you can’t you can’t get too high get too low in this business you know we you know a week from now we

Might be crying Mercy um but but you know I can see these are not just flashes right there’s some really good basketball that’s being played over a long stretch of time um and and and and that’s how we we’ve Envision that this thing looking like um you know this kind

Of style of basketball this selfless basketball that’s being moved around um and then you add you know dynamic talents within that system um and then you defending at such a high level so it’s hard to say you know go out there and make a lateral move that that’s

Going to make you better but do you detract from you know to your point the vibe the atmosphere the continuity that’s being built um that’s not something I wanted to to mess with and to follow up on that I looking ahead you guys do have some open roster spots um

Is there anything specific in mind maybe when the buyer Market starts open up or just maybe guys that Mike G is uh developing internally with charge that you might consider yeah yeah so there’s a few different uh Pathways there EV um you know for our open roster spots we

Could do you know another 10-day a couple 10 days um you know certainly the discussion of of potentially converting a roster spot um with one of our two- ways is is a conversation and then you know monitoring the buyout market so we have to make a decision on a 14th roster

Spot very soon um but that won’t take away from potentially doing a buyout uh Maring the buyout Market as well so something’s going to come soon in ter of that 14th roster spot it has to um but we we’ll figure out what to do for the

Rest of the season in short order thank you last two people will go Justin Rowan and Chris feor to end it hey Kobe uh you talked about the importance of internal development to this team and I was wondering if you could speak to how challenging it is to balance potential

Acquisitions that can f uh fill a need with the team with leaving those responsibilities open so that the internal options have room to grow and hopefully address those needs in the future so I think two things is is one you know JB and his staff have have done a

Remarkable job um in in their development plans for guys um and finding minut it’s hard it’s really hard I mean even with um you know one of the most important players in the franchise Evan moley it’s you know how do you find the right balance of of enough touches

And you you know usage for him while winning right and and so um Evans really really unique in that I’m just using Evan as an example but Evan’s a top three pick and Evan’s played meaningful basketball since day one right he’s played above 500 basketball since he’s

Been in the league that’s really rare for a top three pick every minute has been a meaningful minute and so there has been a balance of you know how much do we we we you know force feed them versus let’s get let’s play meaningful basketball win games and I think JB’s

Found a really nice balance with with that internally as well you look at the dean Wades and and and and and Isaac aoro of the world even Craig Porter you know it’s hard to not see him play because we see so much upside and talent

Um but we have 10 guys and we’re playing winning basketball and you can’t knock them like we can’t play 11 guys we can’t play 12 guys U so I think finding that bounce um finding the minutes and then having really clear-cut plans for guys communicating those plans for guys and

Once they see the ability that they can be successful within our program um you know we have we’re granted some confidence from them um to to believe in in our methods and our process I guess the obvious followup to that is would you say that this deadline

Is a vote of confidence that the guys on this roster have what it takes to achieve your goals for this season absolutely um absolutely we’re we’re excited about this group um we’re excited about this group now and into the future and just really want to see them continue on with this this

Continuity and this basketball Chris Kobe how close to get to making a deal today um I I would say you know there’s a few things you you could do um you could transact um I don’t think we’re close to to doing anything philosophically at all um you know

There’s things you have on your board that you say okay we can we can pull the trigger on um I think you know me and my front office we we were pretty steadfast and and you know watching the Cavs play last night and just enjoying this group

And I think you know that’s being the present now I mean this is exciting basketball team uh this is a core group that’s 28 or years or younger um that’s set up for success for a long time and they’re getting better uh best player Donovan Mitchell’s only getting better

Um you know over the course of of this season and so you know just being in the present and enjoying this group um has been really satisfying and um you know we’re not going to get complacent we we’re never going to be content um but sometimes you gotta leave well enough

Alone and and that’s what we did and you mentioned that so much of your activity came in the off season and even though there are reasons for it you also got off to a slow start so when did you start to believe that you had enough to

Compete with the League’s Elite and when did you get the sense that this would be the deadline result for you guys so the adversity um is always difficult to to go through I think you if you come out of it you can come out of it stronger um

Especially if it happens early on in the season and you can see how we’ve responded from that adversity but I will say that this summer like our guys were together a lot where there was three training you know three offs sites together Vegas together in summer league you know Donovan stuck

Around into the Final Four game of of in Vegas uh watching you know Craig Porter and saman Marill and Pete Nance and Isaac you know Isiah Moy um you know and then you go into training camp and there was a great vibe in training camp and we

Felt like we had enough pieces there um and so yeah we started to a rocky start you know Evan you know Jared Allen misses his first five games I think we can’t compete without Jared Allen on the floor for some reason um so I knew that getting him back was gonna uh be

Meaningful uh but we always thought that this was this was a different group this was a different team and the additions that we made this offseason um with the success we had and I keep saying summer league but you you saw Craig and Sam out there playing real minutes um there was

Our backourt in summer league and a lot of times during that run there were our backourt uh for real NBA minutes so we felt we made some really big progress in the off season and so we had to stay true to that and not overreact to the

Early results um and we came out of it stronger

Cleveland Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman spoke to the media over Zoom after the NBA trade deadline passed on February 8, 2024.