Cavs: Bad sign for Koby Altman, there was pressure to win this year

If you’re a Koby Altman mark, the Cavs may disappoint you soon.

The Cavs were expected to make “big strides” this year, according to Jason Lloyd of The Athletic. According to him, the Cavs organization really expected the team to be in a better place and actually push for the playoffs this year. That wouldn’t be the case, as not only did the team underperform but they were, generally speaking, out getting blown out most nights.

That didn’t stop the team from hoping for more. As Lloyd writes;

"Now, I don’t believe [Koby] Altman or [J.B.] Bickerstaff will be fired this summer. That isn’t sourced reporting; it’s strictly my opinion. I’ve thought that for a while. It also comes with the caveat that several people in the organization felt pressure from ownership to take a big leap this season in the third year of the rebuild. That obviously didn’t happen, so anything is possible."

Now, Lloyd doesn’t believe that Altman or Bickerstaff will be fired. I don’t think Bickerstaff will be fired either, but Altman? That’s a different case. His constant tinkering with the roster seems to be doing more harm than good, and while he’s found guys like Lamar Stevens and Dean Wade, he’s also on the verge of giving good players contracts reserved for great players.

Altman does go, Bickerstaff could be fired by the next GM, so that’s always possible as well.

The expectations were fair for the Cavs to compete.

The Cavs had three big issues that may have had a huge impact if things were different.

The first is the roster change. Not with Kevin Porter Jr., he needed to go. Yet, JaVale McGee, Andre Drummond, Yogi Ferrell, Dante Exum, Thon Maker, and so many others all suited for the Cavs this year. A total of 25 different players wore a Cavaliers jersey this season. That’s a lot. Granted, I didn’t go back further than the 1993-1994 season, because what’s the point, but only twice in the Cavaliers history has the team ever seen 25 or more players suit up.

Obviously, the 2020-2021 season had 25 guys, and the 2018-2019 season had 27 players. Both squads are Koby Altman squads. Both squads had the issue of not being able to form any type of cohesion throughout the year. It showed both years. So Altman clearly didn’t give these guys a chance to settle in.

The other big issue was obviously injuries. The number of Cavs players that missed 10+ games was staggering this year.

The third big issue was not having a properly built team. It’s ok to have guys do certain things in certain schemes but you can’t win when your defense is built around players who don’t play defense.

You combine these issues together and you get the Cavs. The parts are good, but they don’t all fit together. The team needs to make some moves, just what moves to make is anyone’s guess.