Cleveland, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – With little financial flexibility available this offseason, Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman made his splash Thursday night in the NBA Draft.
With few assets and no salary cap room at his disposal, the draft was the best way for Altman to move the needle this offseason as the franchise pushes full steam ahead with their rebuild, and youth movement.
“I don’t know how big [of] players we’re going to be in free agency,” Altman said following the draft. “I think we have 13 guys under contract, we’ll see I think we’ll have that. It’s going to be a process. It’s always a process to see what you have and what you need. Right now, we’re pretty focused on what we have and how we can develop that and play competitive basketball.”
In less than a few weeks last year the Cavs went from a team that wanted to go for it by playing the left over veterans in their second post-LeBron era to firing Tyronn Lue, going young and suffering through an agonizing 19-win season.
They got even younger Thursday night with the addition of three rookies expected to receive significant playing time bringing the aim of John Beilein’s first year in Cleveland into focus.
“We had two picks coming in, which we knew about, and we traded for another one,” Altman said. “The motivation is to give coach Beilein young talent from the start to develop those guys and we want to use coach Beilein right now and give him youthful guys that he can develop right away.
“I think that’s the motivation, to bring in three first round picks, right now.”
Altman had no other choice.
With the 2019-20 salary cap projected to be set at $109 million, according to Spotrac.com, the Cavs are currently $5 million over the estimated luxury tax threshold of $132 million for the 2019-20 season and are looking at a luxury tax bill of $7,582,815.
That's today and those numbers could change depending on what moves Altman makes this offseason.
Altman made three selections in the first round – Darius Garland at five, Dylan Windler at 26 and then Kevin Porter Jr. following a trade with Detroit for the 30th pick which the Pistons acquired from Milwaukee.
Opportunities presented themselves for Altman to wheel and deal early in the draft at five Thursday night, but he stood pat and selected another shooting point guard in Garland from Vanderbilt.
“Five we thought was super valuable,” Altman said. “[We were] really fortunate to win that coin toss. We were tied so five or six, and we felt there was a big drop off, so very fortunate to win that coin toss to have the opportunity to draft a Darius Garland.
“Yeah, you get a ton of phone calls and 99.9% don’t happen.”
One trade that was off the table before the draft even began was a move up to No. 1.
“Zion was never available,” Altman said. “There’s no conversations we had there.”
Altman used four future second round picks – all of them acquired in previous trades – and $5 million in cash to nab a third first rounder in Porter
The one chip many thought Altman would play Thursday night was J.R. Smith, who has been excused from having any relationship with the team since early last season, but he remains a Cav – for now.
“We’re definitely going to investigate what we can do there,” Altman said.
Unfortunately moving Smith and his contract is easier said than done for the Cavs GM.
“There’s a pain threshold of doing it,” Altman explained. “Going into the tax which we’d have to do in terms of taking back money. And then the rest of the NBA knowing that we’re in the tax, and then my job would be to get us out of the tax. So, is there enough value there to do that, to put ourselves out there like that? That’s what we’ve been weighing these last few days.
“There’s opportunity to do it. It’s just how deep do we want to go into the tax to bring back an asset, and also, what does it take us out of going into the year?”
Smith, who enters the final year of his deal, is guaranteed $3.87 million but his $15.68 million salary becomes fully guaranteed if he’s not waived on or before June 30.
There’s a chance the Cavs could hold on to Smith and move him next season at the trade deadline.
“We’re still definitely looking to add assets throughout the year,” Altman said. “Using JR now might take us out of that.”
Being painted into a corner is never a comfortable spot for any GM but give Altman credit.
He took advantage of his best opportunity to add impact talent this offseason Thursday night with the hope that his new head coach will be able to turn that talent into a winning team.
