Failing to adjust in the postseason the last two years contributed to the demise of J.B. Bickerstaff as head coach of the Cavaliers. The way his successor sees it, learning to make in-game adjustments begins months before the playoffs do. President of Basketball Operations Koby Altman and head coach Kenny Atkinson kicked off the Cavaliers’ 2024 training camp Sept. 27 during a 45-minute news conference at Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence. Media Day for the players is set for Sept. 30 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse before the team heads to Bradenton, Fla. for the first week of training camp. “That’s part of the reason why I’m here,” Atkinson answered when what impact he will have to make the Cavaliers go deeper into the playoffs. “The first thing is health. A healthy Cavs team last year changes things. There is an organizational approach to how we’re going to build this team for not only health, but peak performance in the playoffs. “That’s first and foremost. And adjustments are big in the playoffs. And if you don’t prepare for that in February, March, November, whether that’s switching defenses, whether it’s offensive tweaks against switches, I do think you have to work on those playoff adjustments consistently throughout the year. So those are the two big ones for me — health and how we’re building our details to our adjustments.” The Cavaliers finished 51-31 in 2022-23 and were then eliminated by the Knicks in five games in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. There were 48-34 last season, beat Orlando in seven games in the first round and then were knocked out by the Celtics in five games in the conference semifinals. Center Jarrett Allen missed the last three games of the Orlando series and the entire Boston series with a fractured rib. All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell missed the last two games against the Celtics with a calf injury. Making adjustments in the playoffs begins with making in-game adjustments as early as November,, says #Cavaliers new head coach Kenny Atkinson. pic.twitter.com/ax8Hbt60FM — Jeff Schudel (@jsproinsider) September 27, 2024 Altman is convinced the team he built is good enough as is to contend for a championship. He not only kept the Core Four of Darius Garland, Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Allen together. He extended the contracts of Mitchell, Mobley and Allen. Barring a trade, the four are locked into the Cavs through the 2027-28 season. “You don’t fluke your way to 99 wins with something that just doesn’t work,” Altman said. “I think Darius is interesting because I don’t think we’ve given him enough credit for what he’s done here for us and this franchise. Now, as crazy as it sounds, he’s the longest-tenured Cav. We drafted him, 19 wins to 22 wins to 44 wins, and an All-Star season. “Then we bring in Donovan Mitchell, and we go to 51 wins, and he makes a huge sacrifice doing that. But he was a big part of the evolution of this franchise, us taking a step forward and, quite frankly, making this a cool place to be. I mean, a fun, dynamic, pass-first point guard that made us a national-level team, in terms of being on TV, All-Star games, the lobs, all that stuff.” Atkinson is 57 years old. He was head coach of the Nets from 2016-20, where he coached Allen and Cavaliers guard Caris LeVert. He was an assistant coach under Steve Kerr with the Warriors from 2021-24. One of Atkinson’s pet projects is getting more offensive production from Mobley. Mobley has averaged 15 points, 16.2 and 15.7 points in his first three years with the Cavaliers. “I’m not going to get too specific on that, but we’re looking for improvement throughout the roster not just with Evan, but Evan is important because he’s a young guy,” he said. “He’s obviously super talented. Koby keeps saying it — it’s very rare for a young guy to come into the league and all of a sudden affect winning; it’s just very rare. “So we’ve got that piece, we’ve got the defensive piece. Obviously, the offensive improvement is important, so I think structurally we can do some things and hopefully you’ll see that pretty soon what we’re going to do with him. But we also want to continue to have him be the great defender that he is.” Mobley finished third in the Defensive Player of the Year voting in 2022-23. He did not qualify for the award last season because injuries restricted him to 50 games. An NBA player must play a minimum of 65 games in a season to qualify for MVP and all other awards.