Cedi Osman has had a solid sophomore season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 23-year-old seems pumped to play for Team Turkey in the upcoming FIBA World Cup later this year in China, and against Team USA, in particular.
Cedi Osman has really picked up his play as of late for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as we’ve discussed for a while here at KJG. Later on this year, he’ll be a participant in the FIBA World Cup (which is in China this time around), while representing his home country of Turkey, and potentially be able to show that he’s even further along in his development as an NBA forward.
This season, Osman has averaged 13.0 points on 54.0 percent true shooting, to go with 4.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game, according to Basketball Reference.
Osman is ready to compete at that stage, and seems ready to roll against Team USA. The 32-team tournament begins at the end of August, and both teams were placed in Group E, so Osman will have his chance, and he’s “really excited about it,” per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (and h/t Cavs Nation’s Marty Fenn).
From there, Osman said how Turkey’s team will give the USA all they can handle, and hopefully place second in the group, per Fedor.
"“We get to play against them, we are going to shoot our shot and of, course, it’s going to be tough, but we’re going to try to do our best,” Osman told cleveland.com. “After that, we aren’t going to play against each other until almost the finals so that’s why it’s good for us. It won’t be easy, but I believe we are going to be second in the group.”"
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Osman, who will also have fellow NBA players, Ersan Ilyasova and Furkan Korkmaz, on the Turkish team with him, has “high hopes,” (per Fedor), and believes that his squad “can go top 8.”
In addition, Osman noted how his Cleveland Cavaliers’ teammate, Kevin Love, could be going against him in international play, and Love described how much playing for Team USA (which was previously headed by Duke legendary head coach, Mike Krzyzewski, and is now headed by San Antonio Spurs legend, Gregg Popovich), has meant to him throughout the years, according to Fedor.
"“I talked to [Kevin] and he said he would like to play for Pop,” Osman said.“I have considered it,” Love said recently. “USA Basketball has been very good to me in my career so that’s always something that I take highly into consideration. Now it’s Coach Pop and I think that weighs heavy on guys because everybody would like a chance to play for him at some point. One of the best to ever do it. Legendary and infectious to be around as a coach and as a person.”"
It would be something to see Osman and Love going against each other in international competition. I totally understand if Love does not want to play, due to possible injury risk, though, and deterring him from participating in high-level basketball is understandable from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ organization perspective.
As we’ve harped on, Love has missed significant time with injuries year after year since being traded to Cleveland from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
That being said, Love wanting to represent his country and play for one of the best coaches in NBA history is something I get, too, if the opportunity arises.
In relation to Osman, who does not have close to the extensive injury history Love has, will have a good opportunity to keep improving as a player.
The World Cup competition is spread out from August 31 through September 15 (the date of the championship game in Beijing), as Fedor touched on, for the record. Only time will tell whether or not Osman plays against his Cleveland Cavaliers’ teammate later this year.