00:00Cavs President Kobe Altman joins us. Hello, Kobe. Jeff Phelps, Andy Baskin. How are you, sir?
00:04Hey, guys. Jeff, how are you?
00:06I'm well, Kobe. How about you?
00:07I miss your voice.
00:08Thank you very much.
00:10Tune in between 10 and 2.
00:12Oh, man. Kobe, nobody's ever said that to me. I feel bad.
00:16Jeff has a great voice and super knowledgeable, and we miss him around here. I can say that, right?
00:20Well, thanks, Kobe.
00:22You are more than welcome to sit in this chair for four hours a day, 20 hours a week.
00:26Great weekend for Cleveland, though, huh?
00:28Awesome.
00:28That worked out, didn't it?
00:29Yeah, it's phenomenal, and I texted Chris Antonetti today.
00:34The amount of consistency, I don't think people understand how hard it is, but 7 out of 11
00:39central titles, are we kidding me?
00:42In terms of that level of consistency and that level of work, and just such a huge, huge amount
00:48of respect for what they do, and shout out to the Guardians today.
00:51Obviously, the Browns as well with their victory, but just remarkable level of success the Guardians
00:57have had under Chris, and really, really phenomenal.
01:01You guys aren't doing poorly yourselves.
01:04Well, we're trying to keep up.
01:06No, but listen, it's a great sports town.
01:09You have a huge responsibility here.
01:12And the same thing with us this offseason.
01:14You know, obviously, the offseason dragged on a little longer than we'd like, but we felt
01:19that we had a very successful offseason in totality with everything that we did to get
01:24ready for a monstrous Eastern Conference this year.
01:27I mean, the East got better.
01:29Teams got better.
01:31But for us, you know, finishing the Final Four last year, didn't love how we finished,
01:36but proud of making that step to the Eastern Conference Finals.
01:39How do we continue to get better?
01:40How do we rely on some of the continuity that we have and continue to push this thing forward?
01:45And we're pretty confident in the talent that we have in-house.
01:49Kobe, we just had Brandon Weems on.
01:50I'm just curious.
01:51How did he do?
01:52How did he do?
01:52He was good.
01:53Yeah, he was really good.
01:54Good.
01:55Are you worried?
01:55I got to start giving him some more responsibility.
01:57He's got to take some more of these interviews on.
01:59Well, I was going to ask you, you know, when you made the decision to elevate him,
02:04it kind of just goes with the flow with the way this franchise has been, you know,
02:08for a long time now.
02:09And, you know, how important is it to maybe be able to find that person that you're always
02:13next up as someone who's in-house and start there?
02:17And then, you know, how did he win the job?
02:19You know, it's a great point.
02:21We've had such great continuity with our front office.
02:23It starts with Dan Gilbert believing in me, which is almost, I think, almost 10 years ago,
02:29right?
02:3010 years that I'm going to be at the helm here, which is kind of crazy.
02:3315 years in Cleveland.
02:34This is your 15 for me in Cleveland, which is wild.
02:37But I think what he does is he invests in-house in the talent that he has in-house, puts
02:42him
02:42in a position to be successful, lets them make decisions, lets them make mistakes too,
02:47right?
02:47We haven't been perfect.
02:49But what he says, which is great, is fail fast.
02:52Fail fast.
02:53Get up off the ground and go quickly.
02:56Pivot quickly if you have to.
02:57Fail fast and push the thing forward.
03:00And so, you know, with us, you know, obviously a monumental loss in Mike Gansey.
03:05But it shows the strength of our front office, right?
03:07It shows that people around the league look to sort of our building and see, man, can we
03:13poach some of that talent because of what they're doing?
03:15And so, obviously, really happy for Mike and what he's doing in Philly.
03:20You know, me and him have been attached at the hip for a long time.
03:24But Weems is right there, right in that room, making those decisions with us.
03:30So, it was pretty seamless in terms of him getting the job.
03:33We never talked to anyone outside.
03:35No one was going to be close to what he went through with us, how he grew with us, and
03:40sort
03:41of the decisions that he's helped us make in our achievements.
03:44So, really excited for Brandon.
03:47Kobe Altman joining us, Cavs, President of Basketball Operations.
03:51Some of the teams in the Eastern Conference just had major upheaval in the offseason, Kobe.
03:56There were some big moves, a lot of things going on.
03:58You guys made moves.
04:00But rather than making the outrageously big moves, you stuck with continuity and bringing
04:06back most of your core guys, adding players, certainly in Peyton Watson and Mario Hazonia.
04:12But why stay the course rather than maybe jump in with some of the other guys and really
04:18shake things up?
04:19Yeah.
04:20Well, again, you can't fluke your way to Eastern Conference Finals.
04:26The achievement of that shows that we're doing something right.
04:30And I think it pushes us to invest even more in the group that we have rather than break
04:36that up.
04:36When you're talking about some of the names that moved, you're talking about massive
04:41upheaval, to use your word, Jeff.
04:43Like, massive upheaval, loss in flexibility, loss in future, all of those were tolls that
04:50we just felt were too strong.
04:52Not that we didn't explore.
04:54That's our job.
04:55We have to explore the price points of those sort of deals.
05:00But how about investing in the group that got you to a conference finals that's still
05:04young, that's still hungry.
05:06Add to that group, right?
05:07Get younger.
05:09Make your runway longer.
05:10Make your window a little bit longer.
05:12Obviously, adding Peyton.
05:14And again, I think we have some older vets that have been super accomplished in this league.
05:20But when you look at it, you still have an Evan Mobley, who's 25 years old.
05:24Peyton Watson, just turned 24 years old.
05:27Jalen Tyson, 23 years old.
05:29And our rookie, Malik Thomas, who I don't want to put any expectations on because he's so
05:34young.
05:34But man, he's exciting.
05:36And so we have a nice young core here to go with those vets that have accomplished a
05:41lot in this league.
05:42And it's more than just one bite at the apple.
05:44But we want to win this year.
05:46Saying that and knowing the success you had last year and not being able to sit on that,
05:50knowing that the East got better.
05:52And oh, by the way, in the West, you know, San Antonio and Oklahoma City are still sitting
05:55right there.
05:56How much tougher do you think the East got in the offseason?
05:59It got better.
06:01I'm actually excited because it's funny.
06:03They always just say, oh, the East is so easy.
06:05And I disagree with that.
06:06You know, we had to go on the road on Game 7 to be a 60-win team to get
06:10to the conference
06:11finals.
06:11That was not easy.
06:13But I will say, you know, Giannis switching teams, staying in the East.
06:18Obviously, Toronto got better.
06:21You still got the champions and the Knicks.
06:23They're not going anywhere.
06:25Boston, Philly, Indiana is going to be better, right?
06:28Now that they're healthy.
06:29And I'm probably missing a few in terms of what we're talking about.
06:34But I like it.
06:35I think that's going to be good for us to compete every single night.
06:38We're not afraid of anyone.
06:40I think we stack up in terms of talent against any team in the league.
06:44I think for us, it's details, accountability, and how do we sharpen up?
06:49How do we sharpen up in those moments of adversity, bounce back, and have some resiliency?
06:55We showed that in the playoffs for the first two rounds.
06:59And now we need to keep going.
07:01Kobe Altman joining us, Cavs, president of basketball operations.
07:04You guys had to deal with the dreaded second apron, Kobe.
07:09Off-season moves have changed things a little bit.
07:12Where do you guys stand as far as the first and second aprons?
07:15And what does that allow you to do moving forward and a little more flexibility maybe than you had in
07:21the past?
07:21Yeah, I think that was another huge thing in this off-season.
07:25And, again, it's not as sexy as the names that have changed teams and all of that.
07:30But for us internally, it's always like how do we get better and make sure we have the flexibility to
07:35maintain?
07:36And so to dip below the second apron and then dip below the first apron is a huge feat while
07:42adding talent.
07:44To get into the weeds, you can't do a sign-and-trade unless you dip below the first apron.
07:48And so to get below two aprons in a five-team transaction in August took a lot of mental power
07:57from my front office.
07:58There's some really smart people.
07:59Jeff, I say this all the time, I have to surround myself with people way smarter than me, right, to
08:04get this done.
08:05And to navigate a five-team deal is no small feat.
08:08To get below the first apron, to do the sign-and-trade, to negotiate with Denver, negotiate with Peyton, move
08:13Max Struess into space, do all these things to set ourselves up.
08:17But to answer your question, to be below the first apron is huge.
08:21It allows us to do sign-and-trades.
08:23It allows us to add.
08:24We can add buyout guys.
08:25We can do multi-team deals.
08:27We can do two-for-one deals.
08:28Like, you do a lot more things at the deadline if we need to.
08:31Hopefully we don't, but you always, you know, can navigate if you need to.
08:36But it opens up a lot of that flexibility.
08:38Also brings our tax bill way down.
08:41I think we're around $9 million in the tax right now.
08:44And, again, our owner, Dan's the best.
08:47He'll spend, but we're talking about multiple years being in the tax.
08:51It just helps us with our runway.
08:53So this offseason we accomplished a lot from a financial standpoint and a flexibility standpoint for sure.
08:58I was just going to throw one more question at you really quick.
09:00It was good to see James Harden at the Browns game yesterday.
09:03Yeah, he loves it.
09:03Yeah, I mean, it was actually really cool.
09:05I'm just curious.
09:06Tell me something Cavs fans don't know about James Harden that they should.
09:10Just an incredible leader.
09:11And, again, like, I don't know about other stops, right?
09:15I'm not in those walls.
09:16All I can grade him on and view him on is him since his arrival here.
09:21And, again, hard to fit in seamlessly when there's 25, 30 games left in the season at the deadline, right?
09:28But seeing him this offseason, seeing his leadership, his voice, he helped us recruit Peyton Watson, right?
09:35He held off his negotiations in terms of his contract extension.
09:39Could have gotten Nancy middle of summer and still had signed this thing.
09:41He waited out a lot of different scenarios.
09:45When we pivoted to Peyton, he said, I'm in.
09:47Let's figure that out, and then I'll figure my side of it out.
09:51So we're not sitting here under the first apron with Peyton Watson on our team without him.
09:56So there's a selflessness about him.
09:58The other thing, too, and I hope you guys can appreciate this as well, is he's one of the best
10:04to ever do it, right?
10:05And we're not talking about MVP James Harden from, you know, eight years ago with Houston.
10:11But he's a savant, and he's a special, special player.
10:14I think we really need to appreciate that.
10:16Like, we have one of the best to ever do it in between these walls, and we get to be
10:20around him every day
10:21and get to, you know, obviously bounce ideas off of him.
10:25Like I said, he's a savant.
10:26He's a wonderful human being.
10:28He's a great leader.
10:28And he's taken on the leadership role with this group in a really positive form.
10:33But super funny, great dude, and in a great place in his career where all he wants to do is
10:39win.
10:40And I'm really happy that we get to bring his level of expertise, his superstar, you know, his superstardom to
10:48this town.
10:50It's really gratifying to have him around, and just a wonderful dude.
10:54And the best beard in the business.
10:55That's right.
10:56The best beard in the business.
10:58Kobe, thank you for your time today.
11:00We appreciate it.
11:00And I know everybody's looking forward to the season because your team is loaded and ready to take it another
11:05step or two.
11:06We're excited.
11:07Thank you so much, guys.
11:08Appreciate it.
11:09Kobe Altman.
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