He may not be working for the Cleveland Cavaliers anymore, but David Griffin is still a big fan of the direction the team’s headed. That starts, first and foremost, with the team’s decision to trade Kyrie Irving to the Celtics.
The circumstances of David Griffin’s departure from Cleveland are still a bit of an unknown, but he’s a big fan of the work the Cavaliers front office has done since he left town. Griffin and the Cavs parted ways shortly before the NBA Draft in June, and the team went on without an official general manager for some time before settling on someone already in the front office: assistant GM Koby Altman.
Griffin had already advised the Cavaliers to trade Kyrie Irving “quickly” once his request for a trade became public knowledge, but now that the trade is finally (finally!) complete he had positive things to say about the deal during a television interview.
The former Cavaliers GM was asked during an interview with NBA TV if this were a move he would have made were he still in his former role as GM, and he said he agrees with his successor, who engineered the deal to send Irving to Boston in exchange for a package highlighted by point guard Isaiah Thomas.
“I think I would have,” Griffin said. “I really think Koby Altman made a tremendous trade here, given the circumstances. When you’re trying to win a championship, there is no in between. You’re all the way with me, or you’re all the way against me. And I think this was a situation where Kyrie made it clear he had a goal set that might not have jived with what Cleveland’s was.”
The bigger test will be the next year or so of Altman’s tenure as Cavaliers GM, as LeBron James’ decision looms large and Altman may be forced to engineer a rebuild in the vacuum of the best player in the NBA leaving town twice in a decade. But it’s always good to get your old boss’ seal of approval on something you’ve done in his former role, I guess.
(via Cleveland.com)
