Why Koby Altman remains optimistic about Cavs future in end-of-season press conference

Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman addressed the media on Friday to conclude the team’s 2025-26 season. After a 4-0 New York Knicks sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals, he fielded questions from all angles, including the Cavs’ upcoming offseason decisions on James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen’s maturation, trade rumors around Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Kenny Atkinson’s two years at the helm.

“We’re operating at a position of real strength in terms of our foundation,” Altman said. “And I think those discussions happen now. Do we have enough? Do we add around the edges? This is certainly not a place where we’re like, ‘We need to blow this up and start again.’ That’s certainly not where we’re at. But those discussions will happen. But certainly, internally right now, there’s more that we have that we can get to. We’ve retooled this roster, we’ve reshaped this roster, we’ve looked internally, we’ve used trades.

“We’ve used every single facet of team building you can possibly do, from trading for Jarrett Allen, who was young at the time, to acquiring Lauri Markkanen – another underrated move that we did that helped us then get Donovan Mitchell – to even trading for James Harden. We have internal growth that we’ve had over the years, from Sam Merrill to Dean Wade, our draft process. So I think when we look at it, it’s not just, ‘Oh, we need to get younger.’ If it’s the right move to get us better, I think we’ve had the track record and proven success that we’re going to go and do it.”

“Two things can be true” for the Cavs after ECF loss to Knicks.

Altman didn’t beat around the bush with his frustration regarding how Cleveland’s postseason came to a screeching halt. He feels a lack of shot-making was a killer, but Game 1 of the New York series took a heavy toll. He can’t explain it other than speculating if it was heavy legs or an emotional carryover from a huge winner-take-all victory on the road just two days prior. There is admittedly “pain and hurt” coming out of the sweep.

“If we’re going to use legs as an excuse, then that means we’ve got to start now in terms of our preparation, in terms of our endurance, in terms of our durability, because everyone’s going through that right now,” Altman said. “I will say that the Knicks lost in the conference finals last year, and now, they’re in the Finals. A couple years before, the Indiana Pacers lost in the conference finals. They made the Finals.

“There is a pathway here now that you’ve gotten here and realize how difficult it is. And so we need to take all those learnings.”

He did, however, see the Cavs fight through demanding, physical matchups against the Detroit Pistons and Toronto Raptors. It’s all about having perspective and looking at the whole picture.

“From a basketball standpoint, I still think we were doing some really good things,” Altman said. “I believe wholeheartedly in the personnel that we have. I think we have enough talent in-house. That doesn’t mean you can’t reconfigure, retool, and bring in some aspects that we can get better at.

“I’m not saying there’s not fatigue and mental fatigue, but you’ve got to give yourself a chance. And that’s why we’re disappointed because we’ve built ourselves up to a level of expectation and standard now to where we want to get to the Finals and compete for that championship. Anything less is just excuses. We can’t go there.”

From Dan Gilbert on down, Cleveland’s organization is aligned from top to bottom on making it back to the highest stage.

“It’s been five years of sustained success, and we’re still doing this [gradually improving], but we have to figure out how we break through it one more time, and that’s going to be the most difficult step,” Altman said.

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