Koby Altman

Koby Altman

Prior to being named GM in 2017, Altman had been a part of the Cavaliers’ basketball staff for five years, including being promoted to assistant general manager in September 2016. As a member of Cleveland’s front office, Altman has been an integral part of a team that reached four straight NBA Finals (2015-2018) and won an NBA Championship in 2016. He originally joined the Cavaliers as pro personnel manager in August 2012 and was promoted to director of pro player personnel in September 2013.
Altman has extensive experience with the USA Basketball program. In the summer of 2010, he served as the Team Manager for USA Basketball’s Under-17 team at the inaugural FIBA Under-17 World Championship in Hamburg, Germany, where the team won the first-ever gold medal for that age group and featured three players selected among the top 10 in the 2012 NBA Draft. In 2009, he assisted Team USA’s 19-and-under team in the FIBA Under-19 World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand. That team also won gold, its first in that age group since 1991.

Prior to joining the Cavaliers, Altman served as an assistant coach at The Ivy League’s Columbia University for two seasons, where he also led Columbia’s developmental basketball program. He spent the 2009-10 season at Southern Illinois as a graduate assistant after earning his master’s degree in sport management at the University of Massachusetts. While earning his degree at UMASS, he coached at nearby Amherst College for two seasons and helped guide the team to a 48-11 record.
Altman, a Brooklyn, New York native, played collegiately at Middlebury College, where he was a three-year starter at point guard and later named to the college’s Board of Trustees. Altman is also on the National Board of Directors for the Posse Foundation, which identifies, recruits and trains individuals with extraordinary leadership potential, providing full-tuition leadership scholarships from Posse’s partner colleges and universities. In August 2020, Altman along with head coaches and front office executives from Cleveland’s three major professional sports teams – the Cavaliers, Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Guardians – formed the Cleveland Sports Alliance to create lasting transformational social change in communities across Northeast Ohio.

Koby Altman was elevated to President of Basketball Operations of the Cleveland Cavaliers in January 2022. He manages and oversees all aspects of scouting, personnel, player acquisitions and transactions, and all team operations. Altman also oversees the Cavaliers’ exclusive NBA G League affiliate, the Cleveland Charge, and emphasizes community involvement by guiding the team’s player appearance committee in collaboration with the business side of the organization.
Altman, who was previously hired as the 11th general manager in Cavaliers history on July 24, 2017, has significantly transformed the basketball operations department and team’s roster with the signing of key free agents and acquiring draft assets and players via trade. Under his leadership, the Cavaliers have executed 26 total trades and 14 in-season trades, including three in-season moves that helped propel the team to their fourth straight Eastern Conference Championship in just his first season as GM. Since Altman and the Cavaliers’ 2018 NBA Finals run, he has accumulated 21 draft picks.

With lottery picks Darius Garland (No. 5 in 2019), Isaac Okoro (No. 5 in 2020) and Evan Mobley (No. 3 in 2021), Altman has built a strong young core in the NBA Draft despite having only one pick inside the Top 5. Mobley and Okoro earned All-Rookie Team selections in their respective years, with Mobley also being a finalist for the 2022-23 NBA Defensive Player of the Year award. Garland, who signed a multi-year contract extension in July 2022, has become one of the league’s top guards, a 2022 NBA All-Star and the first player in Cavaliers history to finish a season with at least 20.0 points, 7.0 assists and a .400 three-point percentage (2022-23).

In addition to their strong draft picks over recent years, Altman made a move to acquire then 22-year-old center Jarrett Allen, who went on to become an NBA All-Star in 2022, and versatile wing guard Caris LeVert, who was coming off a career-best 20.2 points per game in 2020-21. Altman added to the team’s young nucleus by acquiring Donovan Mitchell, a perennial NBA All-Star who earned All-NBA Second Team honors in 2022-23 and currently holds the highest scoring average in Cavaliers history at 27.5 points per game.
A runner-up for the NBA Basketball Executive of the Year award in back-to-back seasons (2021-22, 2022-23), Altman has created a roster that has helped the team increase their overall record in four straight NBA seasons (2019-2023) and recently advanced to the Second Round of the NBA Playoffs for the first time since 2018. This past offseason, Altman appointed Kenny Atkinson as head coach and secured long-term contract extensions for Mitchell, Mobley, and Allen, reinforcing Cleveland’s appeal as an NBA destination for top talent.