Beyond the players and coaching staff, Cleveland Cavaliers General Manager David Griffin is another significant decision maker who deserves a massive amount of credit for the team’s recent championship success.
He made the gutsy moves needed in assembling this roster, be it letting go of their former lottery pick, investing serious money in some of their rotation players, or initiating a coaching overhaul.
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Everything paid off for the hardworking front office man of Dan Gilbert when the final buzzer sounded in Oakland, and during an episode of ESPN’s NBA Insiders featuring Marc Stein, Amin Elhassan and Brian Windhorst, the man they call “Griff” emphasized his intent to keep this title-winning roster intact.
"We intend to keep this group together and see what we're capable of" — Cavs GM David Griffin just now to the #NBAInsiders on @ESPNRadio
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 26, 2016
Here’s more of Griffin’s statement.
But I do think that you saw the core of our team – it fits together, it’s capable of doing some very special things and I do think we would like to keep it together and I really feel like – and I think I said this to Marc after the game – I think our best basketball is in front of us because we finally organically grew to the point that we were ready to achieve something together. And so I expect that you’re going to see better play from Kyrie Irving, who I think took a huge jump both as an individual talent and as a winner throughout these playoffs. I think Kevin [Love]’s fit with us is much more clearly defined. So we intend to keep this group together and see what we are capable of.
With LeBron James already expressing his intent to make a return to the Cavaliers next season, a good amount of David Griffin’s focus will be on unrestricted free agents J.R. Smith and Matthew Dellavedova. Both guards have proven their worth to the Cavs and they are expected to get paid when they sign their new contracts, hopefully for Cleveland.
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While the players are bound to get their well-deserved rest, Griffin is expected to work round the clock in ensuring that the Cavs will be in a great position to defend their title next season amidst the looming improvements that other teams will be making.
