CLEVELAND (AP) — Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have been playing their best basketball over the past three weeks, Koby Altman and the front office had concluded that they could not stand pat with their roster.
Altman, the team's President of Basketball Operations, is hoping the addition of 11-time All-Star James Harden, along with Keon Ellis and Dennis Schroder, continues the Cavaliers' climb up the Eastern Conference standings and gives them momentum for a postseason run.
“I think it’s fair to say we had an underwhelming start to the season, but every year you look at how can I improve the roster? And every year you canvas the league,” Altman said “Obviously, we made a monumental trade to land James Harden. We think that he raises our ceiling and gives us a chance to have real playoff success. This is not a trade that we took lightly, but we do know that James is going to help us and so we’re excited to welcome him. And then adding Dennis and Keon, adding to our depth there, our defensive prowess.”
The Cavaliers parted with one of their core four players in Darius Garland to get Harden. Garland was a two-time All-Star in his seven seasons with the Cavaliers after being the fifth overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft.
Garland has battled injuries to the big toe on both of his feet for nearly a year. He has missed 27 games this season after having offseason surgery.
The Clippers reached out to the Cavaliers last month to gauge their interest in trading for Harden. Altman pointed out because Harden had an opt-out clause in his contract, Harden had a defacto no-trade clause and could determine where he wanted to go.
“He sought us out as a destination, to where he wants to be and compete for a championship,” Altman said. “We would have been perfectly happy having Darius return to this roster after the deadline. This was not someone that was available somewhere we were trying to move. This became an opportunity that we exercised. He was getting back to a high level of play.”
Harden's Cavaliers debut could come Saturday at Sacramento. Cleveland finishes up a five-game trip in Denver on Monday before returning home to face Washington on Wednesday.
Cleveland was 19-15 at one point, but has gone 12-5 since Jan. 1. It's .706 winning percentage is second-best in the league. The Cavaliers (31-21) are fourth in the Eastern Conference, but only 2 1/2 games out of second.
Besides trading Garland, the Cavaliers dealt DeAndre Hunter to the Sacramento Kings for Ellis and Schroder and sent Lonzo Ball to the Utah Jazz. Even with taking on Harden's contract, Cleveland lowered its luxury tax bill overall with the moves.
“We really felt like we got a lot better in this deadline. I’ll say this, it’s very rare to improve your team and save $100 million at the same time,” Altman said.
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FILE - Koby Altman, the president of basketball operations for the Cleveland Cavaliers, answers a question at a news conference in Independence, Ohio, May 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans were waging their latest fight over party identity in runoffs Tuesday that decide the nominees to face U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and defend the governor's office against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.
President Donald Trump is at the center of each contest.
In the Senate race, the president made a late endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins, a second-term congressman who calls himself a “MAGA warrior,” over Derek Dooley, a first-time candidate and former football coach who has the backing of outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp.
Trump picked his candidate for governor 10 months ago, endorsing Burt Jones, the Georgia lieutenant governor who was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to former President Joe Biden. In that race, it was Kemp who made a late-hour endorsement, announcing his support for Jones on Sunday.
The power of Trump's endorsement — and Kemp's — is being tested by billionaire Rick Jackson, whose campaign has spent more than $100 million, mostly out of his own pocket, to win the nomination.
Polls closed at 7 p.m.
Georgia is key to the national fight for control of Capitol Hill. Ossoff, first elected in the 2020 cycle, is the only Democratic senator running in a state Trump won in 2024; Democrats desperately need to keep his seat if they hope to notch a net gain of four seats in order to have a majority.
Republicans’ choice hinges on a familiar debate over electability, with Dooley, 58, insisting his newcomer status is a benefit.
“We have got to get the best candidate to beat Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said at a campaign stop Monday. “The Republican Party has not won a Senate race in 10 years. … We have to learn some lessons from that.”
Before becoming a college and NFL coach, Dooley hailed from a storied family in Georgia sports lore. His father was legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.
The younger Dooley also has criticized Collins for a House ethics complaint accusing the congressman of abusing taxpayer money by paying the girlfriend of a former top aide for a congressional job she allegedly did not perform. An initial inquiry yielded a referral of the matter to the House ethics committee.
Collins, the son of a congressman, celebrated his endorsement from Trump. But he argues that his record actually makes for the best contrast with Ossoff, especially on immigration, and can attract a broader coalition.
“We’ve got a great organization with the right voting record and the right message,” he said.
Collins, 58, sponsored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, which requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be held without bond. The law is named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a man who had entered the U.S. illegally. Ossoff voted against the measure before flipping to back it after Trump returned to the White House.
Collins also emphasizes his ownership of a trucking company, saying it's exposed him to the struggles workers and business owners endure. “We must protect Americans first, protect our people, put them first, get the federal government off the backs of hardworking men and women out there,” he said.
Whoever wins the nomination will face an immediate campaign finance gap and depend heavily on national GOP resources. By the end of May, neither GOP hopeful had reached $5 million in fundraising and both had less than $2 million on hand. Through late April, the last time Ossoff had to file before his uncontested primary, the senator had raised $60.4 million and had $32.5 million on hand.
Voters Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley — who has no relation to Derek Dooley — were split over which Republican has the best chance of defeating Ossoff.
Martin, who supported Collins, says energizing the conservative base is necessary to protect Republican majorities that aren’t populated with Republican “anti-Trumpers” or “liberals like Jon Ossoff.”
But Debbie Dooley, who voted for Derek Dooley, said Collins has too much baggage and is too closely tied to the far-right to win.
“He will drag down the whole Republican ticket in Georgia,” she predicted. “This is about actually winning. It’s not about just following Donald Trump.”
The president’s preferred primary candidates have a strong record so far in 2026. But none have faced a self-funded rival with Jackson’s spending power.
Jackson, a 71-year-old business owner, amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he's used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads. Appealing to hard core Trump supporters, he’s pledged that immigrants in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He promises a slew of tax cuts. And previewing a potential general election argument, he’s played up his biography as a product of the state foster care system and featured his grandchildren advising him on how to make friendlier ads.
Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy family but is running a more modest campaign. Framing himself as a “proven leader,” Jones proposes eliminating Georgia’s state income tax — without detailing how he’d make up the revenue. And he trumpets his presidential seal of approval and time as a University of Georgia football player in the 1990s. As lieutenant governor, Jones pushed legislation that ultimately did not pass but would have disqualified Jackson’s company from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts.
Trump did not travel to Georgia to campaign with Jones but he's given the lieutenant governor a fresh round of support on social media and called in to a telephone rally during the early voting period.
“Burt was strongly committed to my Campaign in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and worked tirelessly to help us WIN. He has been with us from the very beginning,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.
Georgia's secretary of state race was open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overtake Biden. Raffensberger refused.
For his potential successor, Republicans were left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies. They went with Fleming, who won the nomination on Tuesday.
Jones, a perennial candidate who was once a Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement and said he stood “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state, has said there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word choice that has become code for Republicans who want neither to ratify nor call out Trump’s errant claims.
Democrats voted for Penny Brown Reynolds — a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture — over Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner.
A woman speaks to a Fulton County Election worker before she votes in a runoff election at the C.T. Martin Recreation Center, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
U.S. Rep Mike Collins campaigns in Woodstock, Ga., Sunday, June 14, 2026. ( AP Photo/Bill Barrow)
FILE - Gov. Brian Kemp, center left, and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Derek Dooley greet supporters at campaign stop for Dooley at Farmview Market in Madison, Ga., on May 8, 2026. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)
