With the Cavaliers having already surpassed last season’s win total, General Manager Koby Altman agreed to a contract extension through the 2027-28 season, a league source confirmed Tuesday night.
Altman will be named president of basketball operations.
The Cavs (23-18) stood sixth in the Eastern Conference going into Tuesday's games after finishing 22-50 last season. After LeBron James for the Los Angeles Lakers following the 2017-18 season after leading the Cavs to four consecutive NBA Finals, they won only 19 games each of the next two seasons.
The addition of third overall pick Evan Mobley, a 7-foot center/forward from the University of Southern California who is among the top candidates for Rookie of the Year, has helped vault the Cavs into playoff contention. The Cavs signed 6-11 center Jarrett Allen to a five-year, $100 million contract in August and traded for 7-foot forward Lauri Markkanen from the Chicago Bulls in a multi-team deal.
Along with Allen, point guard Darius Garland is among the top 10 in voting for the Feb. 20 All-Star Game in Cleveland, Garland averaging 19.4 rebounds and 7.3 assists in 35 games.
After the Cavs lost backup point guard Ricky Rubio to a torn ACL on Dec. 28, Altman executed a three-team deal to bring in Rajon Rondo, 35, from the Los Angeles Lakers.
Forward Cedi Osman has come off the bench to shoot a career-best .398 from 3-point range and five-time All-Star forward Kevin Love has embraced his role with the second team, shooting .411 from deep, his best since 2017-18, while averaging 14.2 points and 7.4 rebounds.
Altman was named interim GM after the Cavs parted ways with David Griffin, architect of the 2016 NBA championship team, after the 2016-17 season and was formally appointed to the position on July 24, 2017.
Joining the Cavs in August 2012 as a pro personnel manager, Altman was named assistant GM in August 2016. A point guard at Middlebury College, Altman has also been a college assistant coach at Columbia, Southern Illinois, and Amherst College and gained experience with USA Basketball.
The extension continues Altman's partnership with coach J.B. Bickerstaff, given a new contract on Christmas that runs through the 2026-27 season.
"My relationship with Koby goes a long ways back before we were even here together, so I've got a ton of trust in him and belief in him and I think obviously he feels the same way towards me," Bickerstaff said on Dec. 26. "Our partnership is what I think is going to make this successful, it's how he and I continue to work together, how we grow together, the vision that we have is similar."
