Koby Altman Tips Cavaliers’ Hand About Offseason Priority

Everything went right for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the regular season. They finished atop the Eastern Conference standings with a 64-18 record. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder, who went 68-14, had a higher mark.

Then came the playoffs.

After breezing by the Miami Heat in a four-game sweep, the Cavaliers got bounced by the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the postseason. Darius Garland dealt with a sprained toe. The ailment cost him four consecutive contests. His absence stretched from their series vs. the Heat to the start of their best-of-seven against the Pacers.

Garland averaged 14 points and 4.0 assists while shooting below 35 percent from the field and logging 28.3 minutes. It’s a far cry from the 20.6 points, 6.7 assists, and 40.1 percent sniping from beyond the arc he averaged in the regular season while logging over 30 minutes per tilt. Instead, he shot 3/18 [16.7 percent]

from three-point range upon returning. He was also a frequent target while on defense.

Teammates Evan Mobley and DeAndre Hunter got injured in the final frame of Cleveland’s Game 1 loss to Indiana. The latter dislocated his thumb. The former turned his ankle when he landed on the foot of Pacers center Myles Turner.

Overcoming those injuries and avoiding a disastrous 4-1 series defeat against an Indiana opponent that returns to the Eastern Conference Finals for the second straight year, where the New York Knicks await, required more contributions from Ty Jerome.

The Sixth Man of the Year finalist produced 11.7 points and 3.6 assists per playoff contest. He shot 40.1 percent from the field in nine postseason games. To his credit, the former Virginia Cavalier converted on 38.9 percent of the 4.0 threes he hoisted per matchup.

The latter was more in line with the best regular season of Jerome’s six-year career. He averaged 12.5 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.1 steals. He knocked down 43.9 percent of the 3.6 threes he launched.

Koby Altman addresses Ty Jerome’s future

After playing on an expiring $2.6 million contract, Jerome is scheduled for unrestricted free agency. He turns 28 in July.

According to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, at Monday’s end-of-season press conference, Cavaliers president of basketball operations, Koby Altman, conveyed the franchise would “love to keep him. We’re hopeful.”

Altman continued, “When guys find that confidence in [Kenny Atkinson’s] system, their value gets driven up. Same thing with Sam Merrill. You want to call these guys end-of-bench players before they became real rotational players and valuable within the ecosystem, not just us. The good news is those guys are going to do really well for themselves.”

That could lead to Jerome cashing in elsewhere.

With Mobley earning Defensive Player of the Year, his salary for the upcoming campaign escalates from $38.7 million to $46.4 million. Now, his total salary will surpass $269 million.

The financial ramifications of that are carrying $219 in estimated payroll next season. That means the Cavaliers project to go over the second apron. That’s with 11 players under contract.

They could trade someone like Isaac Okoro, who is on the books for $11 million for the 2025-26 campaign, to aid their effort to retain Jerome.

However, if a team like the Orlando Magic views him as capable of sliding into a starting point guard job and elevating what their team’s capable of, it will be difficult for Cleveland to find a path to keeping its sixth man.