Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman took some big swings at his first trade deadline in charge of the Cavs, swapping out Isaiah Thomas and other assets to get younger, faster and hopefully good enough to return to the NBA Finals for the fourth straight season.
LeBron James spoke positively Friday about the changes around him, and it’s a huge shift in attitude for a team that just days earlier felt like it was falling apart. The team was bickering, an injury to Kevin Love set the defense back further, and rumors about James’ free agent aspirations dominated headlines.
Altman spoke to the media during a conference call on Thursday after the deadline and said he was excited about making the Cavaliers “fun again.”
“I’m really excited about the new guys we have, and I’m really excited about what they are going to bring to the table,” Altman said according to ESPN. “I think we’re going to be energetic, and we’re just going to be fun again, and fun to watch, and fun to be around.”
Perhaps the most striking comment from that conference call was published by The Athletic.
“We were really worried that what was going on on the floor and sort of our culture in the building, we were marching to a slow death,” Altman said Thursday night. “We didn’t want to be a part of that.”
I suppose it’s good to know that the perception outside the Cavaliers was just as grim as inside the organization itself. Things were indeed dire, and Altman did what he felt he had to do to save the season. That came at the expense of essentially giving up on Isaiah Thomas, which Altman said he didn’t want to do, either.
“It’s not something I wanted to do,” Altman said of the Thomas deal. “Certainly when you bring a player the caliber of IT back in a trade this summer, who was a big part of that trade, selfishly you really wanted to see it work. He did an incredible amount to get himself back in playing condition; he did a wonderful job to get himself back from a major injury. Kudos to what he did for us and for him to come back.”
What’s done is done, however, and now everyone in Cleveland will have to figure it out with what they have left.
