Category: Cleveland Cavaliers Blog

The Cleveland Cavaliers have promoted Trent Redden to Assistant General Manager and Koby Altman to Director of Pro Player Personnel. Additionally, Alex Moore has been hired as High Performance Director and will oversee the Cavaliers Performance Team, which manages the team’s rehabilitation, physical therapy, nutrition, strength and conditioning, and athletic training areas.

Redden was most recently the Director of College Player Personnel for the Cavs and has been with the organization since 2006. Altman joined the Cavaliers in 2012 as the Pro Personnel Manager after spending several seasons as an assistant coach at Columbia University and as an Operations Manager with USA Basketball.

Moore, joins the Cavs from the United States Ski Team where he served as the program’s Strength and Conditioning Coordinator for six years.

Within the Performance Team, Steve Spiro has been promoted to Head Athletic Trainer after serving the last three seasons as assistant athletic trainer and Derek Millender has been promoted to Performance Specialist after three seasons as the team’s assistant strength coach. The Cavs have also hired Yusuke Nakayama as Assistant Athletic Trainer, Performance Scientist. Nakayama comes to the Cavs by way of Michigan State University, where he served as an athletic trainer with the Spartan Nutrition and Athletic Performance Program, while finishing his PhD. George Sibel also continues as Physical Therapist, a role he has held with the team for the last seven seasons.

LeBron James never played college basketball but he will have a permanent place in Ohio State’s new locker room.

The Buckeyes have given James a locker and it will be used to display James’ branded Nike gear the school uses to help in recruiting, coach Thad Matta told reporters in Columbus on Tuesday. Ohio State started wearing James’ signature uniforms and shoes in 2007. Matta made James an honorary member of the team at a ceremony in 2009.

“We always want to pay our respects to him for what he did for us in ’07, in terms of we were the first LeBron school,” Matta said. “And obviously we get tremendous product from him, and I know he’s very proud of what he does for us.”

Reported by Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com

Irving’s future in Cleveland has been a topic of conversation since a New York radio host insisted on Twitter that Irving wouldn’t remain in Cleveland for long. Irving dismissed the report during a Team USA minicamp last month in Las Vegas, saying he was excited about the moves the organization made this summer and that “I’m a Cavalier right now. I’m happy to be a Cavalier.” Irving was asked Saturday why he qualified that with “right now.”

“Right now I’m a Cavalier. This is where I am. All that future stuff, I’m not really worried about,” Irving said. “I’m living in the moment right now and I’m just trying to get better with the teammates I have now and make the playoffs for Cleveland. That’s the only thing I can do right now is give it my all as it stands right now and that future stuff, I’m not really worried about it.”

The Cavs control Irving’s rights for three more seasons, and it’s worth noting no player has ever turned down a max contract coming off his rookie deal.

Reported by Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal

Former NBA player Craig Ehlo was released from jail Friday and ordered to stay away from family members and his rural Spokane County home.

Superior Court Judge James Triplet set Ehlo’s arraignment for Aug. 14 on a charge of first-degree reckless burning, a Class C felony, the Spokesman-Review reported.

Ehlo also was ordered to stay away from fire-starting materials and remain in Washington state.

His lawyer’s name wasn’t immediately available Friday night.

Reported by the Associated Press

One of the things David Griffin, Cavaliers vice president of basketball operations, said he loves about the organization is that the team’s ownership is “willing to invest in the process.”

It’s what allowed the Cavs to take time and to send multiple scouts to Europe to watch Sergey Karasev from St. Petersburg, Russia, play on junior national teams and in All-Star events on the international stage. That due diligence eventually led to the team targeting and then taking Karasev with the 19th pick in the first round of the NBA Draft.

“Throughout that process, what we were really excited about was his skill-set,” Griffin said Tuesday at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “His basketball IQ is excellent. He’s a very accomplished young player. To lead the Russian league in scoring at the age he did is unprecedented. He’s somebody, with his skill-set, [who] really spoke to us.”

Karasev, a 6-foot-7 left-hander with a good shooting stroke, according to many scouting reports, also has good court presence and is able to score with his right or left hand. That ambidexterity came about as Karasev shot with his left hand but off the court often lived as a righty.

Reported by Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon Journal

Andrew Bynum is officially a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The free agent center signed a two-year, $24 million contract at the team’s suburban training facility on Friday, and he was introduced by general manager Chris Grant.

Bynum sat out the entire 2012-2013 season with Philadelphia because of knee injuries, but said he will be medically cleared to practice by the start of training camp. He underwent surgery on both knees in March.

— Reported by the Associated Press