The Cleveland Cavaliers, by all accounts, have had a successful 2022-23 regular season. They finished with 50 wins, and given how young their core four is, they’re set up to contend for years to come. However, the Cavs heartbreakingly fell short of expectation in the playoffs, suffering a five-game series defeat to the New York Knicks despite being the higher seed.
Nevertheless, general manager Koby Altman believes that the Cavs’ shortcomings in the team’s first playoff run without the services of LeBron James in quite a while are very much correctable, especially given most of the rotation players’ inexperience.
“We have to get better at the focus level. A lot of the problems in the postseason were self-inflicted. We have to become more mature in our focus,” Altman said, per Tom Withers of AP.
Koby Altman thought that this problem, in particular, manifested itself in what seemed to be a premature sense of jubilation among members of the Cavs roster. Nevertheless, the GM is confident that this loss would mold the Cavs into a much more locked-in unit.
“There was a level of too much relief when we made the playoffs. That’s out the door now,” Altman added.
Altman dove even deeper into what he thought the Cavs lacked in their crushing playoff loss to the Knicks. He acknowledged that the Cavs could have been a more resolute team on the glass, and that their inability to secure the defensive boards on multiple occasions hurt due to the low-scoring nature of the series.
Nevertheless, the Cavs, barring any unforeseen circumstances, are still in the early stages of their contending timeline. With a few additions and tweaks here and there, they should be well on their way to a much more fruitful playoff run in 2024.