I firmly believe that nothing the Cavs could have done at the trade deadline and nothing Bickerstaff could have done differently during the Knicks series would have changed the outcome. This roster, even with a tweak, was not set up to beat the Knicks. They lost 6 of 8 to the Knicks this year. The first one was a fluke when Love and Wade combined to hit 14 3-pointers in the 6th game before the Knicks got Josh Hart.
So what now? Chris Fedor had a column that laid out Altman's thinking.
Obviously, we’re going to look at what we can do to adjust, but there’s no sweeping changes. No one’s going to panic off this first-round loss. - Koby Altman, 4/28/23
So FORGET ABOUT trading Allen. NO SWEEPING CHANGES.
Altman is banking mostly on internal improvement. He believes the young playoff first-timers will learn lessons from their debut on league’s grandest stage. Garland will be a better decision-maker and a more assertive offensive dynamo. Allen and Mobley -- a pair of non-spacers that Altman believes can thrive together despite the lousy playoff series -- will spend a summer in the weight room. - Fedor
Note: Altman thinks Mobley and Allen can THRIVE TOGETHER.
Don’t discount how we’re positioned for the future with this young talent that’s under contract that really enjoys each other. That’s why you don’t overreact to this one series. Knowing what you have in house and knowing that you have the runway you do have. We will look at all opportunities like we always have, but we’re going to invest in this group and give them the runway they deserve. - Altman
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT, NO SWEEPING CHANGES. My question is - how long is this runway? Two more years? Three?
Our real upside is going to be the diversification of our offense through Evan Mobley, who’s 21 years old and just scratching the surface of how good he can be. He’s going to be an offensive weapon. He’s going to be a hub. He’s going to be a dude that we’re going to ask to rebound and push the ball and get us easy buckets in the transition. He’s just getting started. There’s a physical maturation that you’re just not going to have at 21, that at 25 he’s going to be vastly different. His growth has been exponential this year and it’s only going to get better. - Koby Altman
Feeling the urgency to add strength to his still-developing frame, Mobley is already planning to have a personal home gym built this offseason. - Fedor
So the plan is to maybe tweak the roster and wait for Mobley to go from being invisible against the Knicks to "an offensive weapon" and "a hub". My question is - will it take until he's 25?
Still, Altman recognizes the roster flaws -- pointing specifically to shooting, spacing and physicality. He has an offseason wish list. The Cavs have been hunting for a starter-quality two-way wing for years, coming up short in free agency and at the trade deadline.
One question Altman will keep asking: Are any of the in-house options capable of improving enough to reliably fill those spots? - Fedor
That’s a big one,” Altman said of the mid-level exception. “If you can add a rotational player through the mid-level exception … if you’re talking about adding one or two pieces to this rotation, than that’s substantial. - Fedor
So we can discuss all kinds of options on this board, but it appears the Cavs have a game plan. Be patient and count on internal improvement, especially from Mobley. Use the MLE to add a rotation player, hopefully a two-way wing.
If I were the Cavs I would have Wade and Okoro shooting 1,000 corner and angle 3's a week between now and the start of training camp. Mobley needs to develop a mid-range jumper, preferably from the elbows, and a reliable jump hook from 8 feet in. Sign LeVert - he got a lot more comfortable in his new role as the season progressed.
In training camp the Cavs need to spend a lot of time on offensive solutions to what the Knicks did to them in the playoffs - like blitzing Garland or Mitchell and forcing them to pass to Okoro or Mobley on the perimeter, and clogging the paint when Garland or Mitchell attempted to get to the rim. They have a lot of time to think about how they need to tweak the roster to give Bickerstaff solutions to the Knicks' defensive approach that was so successful.
They also need to come up with a defensive scheme that does not allow so many offensive rebounds. Like Hollinger said, what the Knicks did on the offensive glass was "almost comical".