The Cleveland Cavaliers’ season may have ended in disappointment, but Cavs President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman isn’t ready to hit the panic button and make a reckless trade. Far from it. After watching his team fall in five games to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cavs’ President of Basketball Operations made one thing abundantly clear during his end-of-season press conference: the championship window for this Cavs core remains wide open and they’re not trading Jarrett Allen.

“We’re not gonna go anywhere,” Altman said. “We’re gonna keep fighting for that championship, and this window is wide open. We believe.”

For a team fresh off a franchise-best 64-win regular season, expectations were sky high. But the sting of another second-round playoff exit, Cleveland’s third in as many seasons, has stirred questions around the sustainability of this core group. Altman, however, remains unwavering in his belief that Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Allen are still the right pieces to bring championship basketball back to Cleveland.

And yes, despite what so many might say, that includes Allen.

“I think Jarrett [Allen] is the easy target, right?” said Altman. “Let’s point to Jarrett in Game 5 when he wasn’t his best. I think he’d be the first to tell you that in that space, that’s where you need to elevate his level. But we all kind of did, right?”

Allen’s playoff struggles have made him a lightning rod for criticism, a role not unfamiliar to players in his position. Like Kevin Love before him, Allen has become the most expendable piece of an otherwise untouchable group, at least in perception. Trade rumors have followed him each offseason. But Altman pushed back against the narrative that the Cavs would be better off without him.

“Jarrett remains incredibly important to us. We’re not a 64-win, one-seed without him,” said Altman. “You’re not gonna get much better if you’re talking about moving away from Jarrett.”

Altman pointed to Myles Turner in Indiana as a cautionary tale, as a player rumored to be on the move year after year, now a cornerstone of the Pacers, a conference finalist. It’s a blueprint Altman hopes Cleveland can follow by staying patient with Allen and continuing to develop from within.

“There’s always going to be urgency,” said Altman. “[but] we have patience because we keep knocking on that door… there’s a level of disappointment and frustration, and how do we come back and go after this thing again? That’s the space we want to live in.”

It’s a mindset that permeates throughout the organization, especially when it comes to Evan Mobley. Fresh off winning Defensive Player of the Year and showing flashes of offensive growth under first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson, Mobley remains central to Altman’s vision for the future.

“If we don't think he's gonna break through, we're nuts,” Altman said of Mobley. “He's gonna break through at some point. He's 23 years old, this is his third playoffs, he's still figuring out this new high-usage part of his game that came with Kenny [Atkinson] this year.

“And so, he's going to break through. That internal growth is something that we've always banked on and are going to continue to bank on.”

Altman also acknowledged the need to improve in the playoffs, “the next 16 wins,” as he calls them, and cited teams like the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics who took years of postseason failure before reaching the summit. With Cleveland’s core just three years into its playoff journey, he believes their time will come.

This offseason won’t be without its challenges. Salary cap constraints and the pressures of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement will force difficult decisions. But despite speculation surrounding Mitchell’s future and outside noise urging major changes, Altman is choosing conviction over chaos.

The Cavs may be licking their wounds, but they’re not running from the fight. Despite the outside noise, Altman’s message is clear. Cleveland's foundation is solid, the core is committed, and the window is wide open. Now, it’s time for the Cavs to keep growing and climb through it.