Griffin joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as vice president of basketball operations in 2010. In 2014 he became the acting general manager and later that year he was named permanent, full-time general manager. Some of his big moves with Cleveland included bringing in coach David Blatt, drafting Andrew Wiggins, signing LeBron James, and trading for Kevin Love in addition to winning the 2016 NBA Finals and finishing second in the NBA Executive of the Year voting for 2014-15. Griffin left the Cavs in June 2017 after a contract agreement was not reached.