Central Notes: Altman, Mitchell, Suter, Pistons Free Agents

Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman doesn’t think the roster needs major changes after his team got swept by New York in the conference finals, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.

“Everybody is aligned in where we want to get to,“ Altman said. ”We all know we need to dig deep to take that next step. I always say two things can be true. We hated the way it ended. We were disappointed with the way it ended. I think the reason for that is we have higher expectations. ,,. We believe in the players that we have in house. It’s been a long road to get here. It’s been five years of sustained success, and we’re still doing this [gradually improving], but we have to figure out how we break through it one more time, and that’s going to be the most difficult step.”

How they make that step is up for discussion among the front office.

“Over the last five years, we’ve retooled this roster, added to this roster. We’ve looked internally. We’ve grown internally. We’re operating at a position of real strength in terms of our foundation,” he said. “And I think those discussions happen now. Do we have enough? Do we add around the edges? This is certainly not a place where we’re like, ‘We need to blow this up and start again.’ That’s certainly not where we’re at. But those discussions will happen. But certainly, internally right now, there’s more that we have that we can get to.”

Here’s more from the Central Division:

• In the last installment of his Andscape diary via Marc J.  Spears, Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell admits that getting swept was a difficult way to go out this season. “It was a very painful ending. To go out like that, you try to put on a smile and try to move past it,” he said. “It’ll take a little bit. The worst part about it is just the sweep. We had an opportunity, right? It was right there. I’m saying we go ahead and win the series. Whatever happens, happens. But when you have an opportunity, man, and you watch it go past, that’s killer. And at the end with the 35-, whatever it was, point loss. That s‑‑‑, I don’t really know how else to describe it. But that’s one of the things. It don’t matter all the success we’ve had. Yeah, it’s great. But when you lose like that, it’s tough.”
• Peter Suder, who hails from Carmel, Ind., visited the Pacers practice facility for a draft workout on Thursday. Suder averaged 14.8 points and 4.0 assists for Miami (Ohio) last season. “It’s definitely surreal,” Suder said to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star. “(Growing up) 30 minutes away from this facility, it’s just crazy. It’s always been a dream growing up, especially being an Indiana fan, a Pacers fan. All my friends, family back at home, they’re all rooting for me to go to the Pacers, so it’s just a surreal feeling.” Indiana currently doesn’t have a pick in the draft.
• Kevin Huerter is the only significant Pistons free agent who is likely to leave, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press predicts. He believes the team will reach agreements with RFA Jalen Duren, Tobias Harris and Javonte Green and exercise its option on Daniss Jenkins‘ contract.