Altman confirms Gilbert will have “big influence” in coaching search

Gilbert will have a voice in selecting the next head coach.

Cleveland Cavaliers President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman basically confirmed recent rumors that majority owner Dan Gilbert is more involved with basketball operations. That at least will be true when it comes to picking out J.B. Bickerstaff’s replacement.

“Dan will for sure play a role at the end when I present him with our finalists,” Altman said at his end-of-season press conference. “Dan gives incredible insight. I love when he’s involved because it’s just helpful. It gives you support. But also, he thinks outside the box. He pushes you. And so I’d say at the end it certainly would have a big influence on what we do.”

It’s accurate to say that Gilbert isn’t afraid to think outside of the box, but that hasn’t always yielded the best results in the case of David Blatt and John Beilein. Both were succeeded by their top assistant who went on to have much greater success.

Gilbert, however, won’t be involved in the day-to-day search.

“Our front office will run the search,” Altman said. “There’s a lot of hours, days, weeks that we pour into this decision. There’s hours spent with the candidates. There’s phone calls. There’s background [checks]. And so, from just a mechanic standpoint, we’re going take the weekend off right now to just decompress a little bit.

“I know people already have lists that we have. It’s not true. We’re going to come back on Tuesday. We’re going to go over sort of the characteristics or the specific questions that we have, and then start to compile a list and then go from there.”

This is one of the most pivotal offseasons in recent memory. The Cavs are at a crossroads in the team-building process that will require them to make some difficult choices about the coaching staff and roster.

Relieving Bickerstaff of his duties was the first of those decisions. The next will be finding a new coach, which Altman stressed might not be in place in time for the draft. They don’t want to rush this process knowing how important this decision is.

“[We] absolutely have to find the right leader,” Altman said. “There’s pressure in everything that we do. I get the importance of this.”