Cavs release new statement regarding Koby Altman in wake of his not guilty plea

Cleveland Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman was arrested on Friday and charged with impaired driving. He has since pled not guilty to that charge.

The Cavaliers organization recently offered an updated statement on Altman’s situation.

“We hold our team members to a high standard of conduct and expect leaders at every level of our organization to represent the Cavaliers with integrity, professionalism and accountability,” the statement read. “We will continue to closely monitor the facts and circumstances of this matter and await resolution of the legal process.”

Altman has been with the Cavaliers since 2012, and he was named the team’s general manager back in July of 2017 after Cleveland parted ways with David Griffin.

One of Altman’s first and most memorable moves as an executive with the Cavaliers came in August of 2017 when he traded star point guard Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, a 2018 first-round pick and 2020 second-round pick.

Unfortunately, the trade backfired for Cleveland. Thomas, who was the best player the Cavaliers received in the trade, played just 15 games with the team during the 2017-18 regular season before Cleveland traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers for Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. The 5-foot-9 point guard averaged just 14.7 points per game on 36.1 percent shooting from the field in his short stint as a Cavalier.

Wing Jae Crowder’s stint in Cleveland was also very brief. He played 53 games with the team during the 2017-18 regular season before the Cavaliers traded him to the Utah Jazz alongside Derrick Rose. Crowder averaged 8.6 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game with the Cavaliers. He struggled to score the ball efficiently from the field, however, as he converted 41.8 percent of his field-goal attempts and 32.8 percent of his three-point attempts with the team.

Despite the fact that Altman’s decision to trade Irving for Thomas and other assets didn’t pan out the way Cavaliers fans hoped it would, he’s still served as a productive executive overall during his time with Cleveland.

But after this development with the OVI charge, his future with the Cavaliers and the NBA could easily be up in the air. Only time will tell if Altman remains as the team’s president of basketball operations for the long haul.