Koby Altman took over as the Cleveland Cavaliers' general manager in 2017 and has a contract through the 2027-28 season as the team's President of Basketball Operations. He immediately started making moves with a chaotic 2018 NBA Trade deadline and that aggressiveness has continued during his tenure.
Actively changing a roster can be a good or bad thing and the majority of Altman's moves, including the draft, have proved to make the Cavs a better team. This put him on the radar to receive some recognition.
Altman finished runner-up in the 2022-23 NBA Executive of the Year Award. Ironically, it wasn't what he did during the season to finish so high in this award. It was the trade he made before the season even started.
Obviously, this is referring to the blockbuster deal the Cavaliers made with the Utah Jazz for Cleveland to acquire Donovan Mitchell.
This trade turned out to be a win-win for two organizations heading in different directions. Cleveland got their superstar to lead them back to the playoffs and the Jazz got pieces such as Collin Sexton and Most Improved Player of the Year Lauri Markkanen.
The trade turned out to be well worth it as Mitchell became an All-Star starter for the first time in his career, finished sixth in the MVP voting, and helped Cleveland finish fourth in the Eastern Conference.
However, their playoff appearance was a short five-game series with the New York Knicks.
Altman didn't do much during the regular season. Some of the minor moves that went down were buying out Kevin Love, which has recently drawn some criticism, and bringing in veteran Danny Green.
The creator of Cleveland's roster has a long summer ahead of him to prove that he's one of the NBA's top executives. The Cavs have a number of holes that need to be filled to solidify themselves at the top of the Eastern Conference.
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