The Cleveland Cavaliers had an eventful summer, trading their second-best player in Kyrie Irving and bringing in new faces. But there was a three-week period where they were without a general manager and this has set the organization back, says ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.
Before the 2017 NBA Draft took place, Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert fired then-GM David Griffin, a surprising move especially at such a critical time for the franchise. The timing of it could not be any worse.
According to Windhorst, “those 3 weeks over the summer that the Cavs had uncertainty in their GM position could have been one of the most damaging stretches in team history.”
For a time, Gilbert had been entertaining the possibility of hiring former NBA player Chauncey Billups. When that deal fell through, Gilbert decided to promote assistant GM, Koby Altman as Griffin’s replacement
The process of finding a new decision-maker, however, took too long that the Cavaliers missed out on addressing some key issues and priorities during the offseason.
The Cavs are in a tailspin heading into their home game against the Orlando Magic tonight. They have lost nine of their last 12 games, including a four-game losing streak. Because of this, the Cavs may be second-guessing the decision they made to trade Kyrie Irving to their chief rival in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics.
As Windhorst pointed out in a recent piece, the Cavs could have handled the situation with Irving the same way that the San Antonio Spurs handled LaMarcus Aldridge’s trade request—bthey talked.
Without Griffin, Irving lost the one person he trusted in the front office. No communications were made between the organization and Irving and his agent. The next thing you know, the trade to Boston happened with an injured Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and a 1st-round pick as the pieces in exchange.
The Cavs can still turn it around and there is more than enough time to do so. But if they had a GM during the three weeks that Griffin was out, who knows how much better the Cavs would be right now.
