INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — The Cleveland Cavaliers' season came to an end after being swept by the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals. It was a tough way to be eliminated, but the team enters the offseason with a clear taste of success after their first conference finals appearance in eight years.
The Cavs were able to get over the second-round hump this season, but with their eyes set on a championship, they'll need to make adjustments for the 2026-27 season, and president of basketball operations Koby Altman addressed what that might look like on Friday during his end-of-season media availability.
So what did Altman have to say about his team? Here's a recap:
This isn't a rebuild
The Cavs are disappointed they didn't make it to the NBA Finals, but still had plenty to be proud of this season. With the big picture success in consideration, Altman doesn't expect this offseason to be some big overhaul of the roster.
"I think that there's still growth to be had. And once you get to this level, it kind of gives you another perspective of how hard this thing is. We still have young players on the roster. We still have Evan Mobley that's 24 years old. This group is still kind of new when you talk about adding James Harden at the deadline. We're hopeful to have him back next year and have a full summer with him and training camp with him. But we've also always looked externally as well. We've, over the last five years, retooled this roster, added to this roster. We've looked internally. We've grown internally. We're operating at a position of real strength in terms of our foundation. 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," Altman said.
Kenny Atkinson returning as head coach
Following the Cavs' swift ECF exit, there were questions and speculations about head coach Kenny Atkinson's future with the team. Atkinson drew plenty of criticism over the playoff run, but particularly in Game 1 against the Knicks when he opted not to call any timeouts in the fourth quarter, despite having four, and allowed New York to come back in the last eight minutes to overcome a 22-point Cavs lead and win the game in overtime.
However, that criticism was outside noise to the Cavs, and Altman said moving on from Atkinson, who won Coach of the Year last season in his debut as Cleveland's head coach, was never a thought.
"I think we heard a lot of noise after that loss to the Knicks, which was unfortunate. I don't think it was a story. There was never a conversation about Kenny at all. When we win as an organization, we win as an organization. When we lose as an organization, we all own it, and there doesn't always have to be a fall guy. Kenny has been remarkable the last two years. If you just zoom out and look at his resume, 64 wins last year, coach of the year, gets us to a conference semis. This year, we get better in terms of our playoff success, get to a conference finals, 52 wins. I think that the most extraordinary part of Kenny this year was, out of the gate, we were hurt and beat up and a lot of starters missing from the start of the season. And we go 17-16. For him to stabilize that with 41 different starting lineups, I think, was incredible, and to get us back to 52 wins. He's able to move and adjust on the fly really, really well.
"We trade for James Harden, add a couple pieces, obviously in Dennis and Keon at the deadline, and now we have to shift and change the way we play a little bit, or dramatically in some cases. And he was able to adapt and make and mold and build around that. So to get us back to 52 wins, home court in the first round, which was huge, he's done a remarkable job. And obviously…the player development, which we brought him in for to make sure we have a stable pipeline to continue our growth. Jaylon Tyson, Tyrese Proctor, Craig Porter Jr. All these guys have elevated their— even Sam Merrill, have elevated themselves as basketball players under him. And so it's easy to point to the loud loss and just say, ‘Man, we all want some of those possessions back, coach included, players included.’ I want that series back. But we have to own that as an organization. How can we get better? The players own it, too. And so this is not a Kenny discussion. It never was a Kenny discussion. It was an organizational discussion of how we can break through to that next level. But I think if you're looking at his resume in totality, the last two years have really been remarkable from a record standpoint, from a player development standpoint and obviously breaking through to a conference finals is a real achievement for a head coach and for us.”
Cavs hope to re-sign James Harden
The Cavs added James Harden at the trade deadline this season, and while he didn't get much time to gel with the team due to when he joined and a number of injuries Cleveland was dealing with down the stretch of the regular season, it appears that won't be an issue in 2026-27.
Harden has a player option in his contract, but may decline the option and work out a deal with Cleveland to sign back with the squad. Bringing Harden back is something Atlman said they hope to accomplish this offseason.
"Obviously, he has a player option. We have to talk to his representation about what that looks like. We're hopeful he comes back and we have a full training camp with him. I think in regards to James, he was remarkable for us. I think people need to take a step back and realize we didn't trade for MVP James Harden. We traded for James Harden at the end of his career that has transformed himself to becoming one of the best point guards in the league. He helped stabilize us. He helped re-galvanize the group. We were kind of shaky there, in terms of our belief. And when he came on board, he gave us a real belief and swagger. If you remember, we traded for him and shot out of the gate 5-0, with some real swagger and confidence, and we're not in the conference finals without James. So, that's a real important piece. But we need to figure it out. Obviously, we're in the second apron as of right now, and we need to figure out what pieces we can bring back. Those are hard decisions. The CBA puts that [on you]. If you have a really good deep roster, you have to make difficult decisions. And so, we'll start to deliberate what that means and who we can bring back," Altman said.
Donovan Mitchell happy in Cleveland
Cavs' superstar Donovan Mitchell has for years expressed how much he enjoys playing for and living in Cleveland, and after making it to his first-ever conference finals, that hasn't appeared to change.
"I love it here. I don't know how else to say it. I've said it before I signed the other extension. I love it here and I have no doubt this group can get there, but reports are going to be reports, people are going to be people, but I said the same thing. We have unfinished business. It's great energy to see the city, when we got to the conference finals, just to feel that, that's amazing. And that's why getting swept like this sucks because you feel what — even driving in, people are going crazy. I love that. I love that about this place, man. The city deserves a ring and we just got to keep going," Mitchell said after the Cavs' Game 4 elimination.
Mitchell is entering the portion of his contract where another extension would make sense, and while Altman declined to speak on his actual contract, he did reiterate what his All-Star guard has said.
"He's still playing the best basketball (of) his career, and look, Donovan is our guy. He loves it here. I think he's professed how much he loves it here emphatically. Through this, and it's interesting, like 2018 was the last time we made a conference finals and finals and eight long years to get back here. The four years without him, no playoffs. Four years with him, playoffs. Multiple conference semifinals or conference finals. He's elevated everything about this franchise and this organization. So when he professes his love for being here, we're fortunate to have him and we'll work out those details when it comes time. But right now he's still playing the best basketball of his career. I think this was his second-highest points per game, another all-NBA caliber year and he finally broke through to get to a conference finals and he wants more. And so we're getting him at his peak right now and we hope that that continues," Altman said.
Altman positive on Cavs' bigs
For the last few years, there have been questions surrounding the Cavs bigs, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. During this playoff run, many of those questions were answered and they both were major reasons for the deep postseason run.
Altman gave them both praise on Friday and expressed his desire to see them continue to grow together next season.
"We need them. They're almost like our cheat code in terms of defensive prowess, but also just in terms of our net rating when they're on the floor together. They both grew. They both grew tremendously. And again, this is an evolution of where we've been the last five years. There's been times when we failed and we fell on our face. It's only come back stronger. I think we're going to add to the moniker: 'Game 7 JA.' That's going to be etched in the walls somewhere in Cleveland history and it really will be because we needed him at those times and at those moments when our season's on the line, he was incredible.
"And then Evan Mobley, who you can argue was consistently our best player throughout the playoffs. I know everyone wants this jump from him, and he does himself, but this playoffs, he was tremendous for us. And you think about Game 5 on the road in Detroit, scores the last seven points to bring us to a tie ball game. There was a three ball at the top of the key that went in. That gave us all belief, 'Okay, now we can do this.' We didn't see that from him two, three years ago. To be able to step up and knock down that three and then, oh, by the way, hit two key free throws to tie up that ball game on the road. These are all things that we're going to grow from, that he's going to grow from.
"And so when I say we have a strong foundation, these guys have been through failure. They've bounced back and come back stronger and those two specifically find great ways to play alongside each other, big to big action and then Evan stretching the game out. I think Evan throughout his career now, the playoffs has shot 36% from three. So he's evolved his game and they're still relatively young, right? Still relatively young, but older in terms of experience and playoff experience. And so those two fit really well together and we're excited about their future together," Altman said.
Urgency to get better
While the Cavs don't see the need to do any kind of "rebuilding," Altman expects to use the offseason to instead "retool."
Altman talked about the ability to look internally and externally for adjustments, and the urgency not only to make moves regarding being in the second apron, but to take the next level leap and make it to the Finals next season.
"The urgency is if there's a move that makes sense to do it. There's no urgency to get out of [the second apron] just to get out of it because then you'd be shedding contracts and good players to do it. So you don't just do it to do it. We've been very, very strategic. This is the first year we've been in the tax since we started, since 2018, I should say. So we got to be strategic on what we're trying to do. Even in the second apron, we were able to navigate that trade deadline, shed some money, bring in three guys that helped us for sure. So it's not a death nail because you're in the second apron.
"That being said, we have to be really strategic on what we do and how we add and how we can get better. But I'm pretty confident in our front office and our creativity. And you mentioned urgency. There's absolute urgency. There always is. When you have Dan as your owner and the Gilbert family that wants to bring another championship to Northeast Ohio, it's great pressure. It's great pressure to have. We're all aligned. It's not, 'Hey, go save money or shave this or get out of' — no, it's like, how do we get better? That's the question. If that's the North Star, you're not worried about the second apron. You're not worried about the tax bill. It's, how do you break through? And so we're in great shape because we're aligned under that guise and there's no mandate to do this or do that. How do we get better? And getting better means making the Finals and that's a hard, hard thing to do. And so that's incremental. That could be around the edges. That could be a big ticket move. We're going to look at all of it and certainly be able to navigate around the confines of the second apron if we have to," Altman said.
