Cleveland Cavaliers: Consistency is what Cedi Osman must be striving for

Cleveland Cavaliers young wing Cedi Osman took a big step in 2018-19 in his first year with a considerable minutes-share, but it’s clear that he needs to be more consistent for him to maximize his value.

Many fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers seem to be particularly fond of young wing Cedi Osman, and I’m no exception.

I’m a big Osman supporter, and he showed plenty of promise in the 2018-19 season, as the now-24-year-old had 13.0 points per game on 53.6% true shooting, to go with 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game (per Basketball Reference).

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As a result of Cleveland star big Kevin Love, along with several others, missing big stretches of last year due to injury and the team then embracing a full-rebuild, anyhow, Osman, and most notably Collin Sexton (a rookie last year), shouldered much of the offensive scoring load.

So again, it was nice to see that Osman was able to show he can be a key young piece for Cleveland in coming years with his ability to slash, finish with floaters, make plays in transition, occasionally make post-up turnarounds, and as a catch-and-shoot player, he did show flashes.

The biggest focus for Osman going forward, though, is being more consistent overall for the Cavaliers.

He shot 60.3% from 0-3 feet from the rim, which is fine, considering Cleveland didn’t have a ton of spacing for much of last season with Love missing 60 games mostly due to reported toe surgery (per Basketball Reference), but Osman at times is susceptible to just attacking the rim even with multiple defenders, including bigs, near the rim, and sometimes will throw up some wild shot that is little chance of dropping.

Hopefully he can use up-and-unders, and utilize more short floaters, which he’s capable of hitting, instead in coming years in those sort of situations, and with more experience, I believe he can make that adjustment.

I’d also think Osman should have more cutting opportunities with the likes of a combination of likely floor spacers in Sexton (who shot 40.2% from three-point land), Darius Garland, Love, Larry Nance Jr. (who shot a respectable 33.7% last year from deep and is a good passer), Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. on the floor with him likely a good chunk in coming years.

That could open up chances at the rim along the baseline for Osman after off-ball screens and drives, something he didn’t have nearly enough last year, and Osman is a good finisher in those scenarios that are assisted attempts in the restricted area.

Additionally as a catch-and-shoot player, Osman needs to knock down more three-point looks. He did shoot 34.8% from deep in 2018-19 (per Basketball Reference), which was decent, in my opinion, on 4.9 attempts per game (a three-point rate of 44.3%).

The problem was, as Hoops Habit’s Tony Pesta highlighted, was that Osman was a poor shooter from deep when he had a ton of room.

"“His 32.4 percent shooting on 2.8 wide-open attempts per game makes him the third-worst shooter in the league, in front of only Joel Embiid and Kyle Kuzma (minimum 2.8 attempts per game).”"

This was not ideal last season, and Osman I would think should have more chances at very open looks in coming years with more spacing on the Cavaliers and likely better man and ball movement in new head coach John Beilein‘s offense.

On the bright side, Osman did shoot 37.0% on pull-up three-pointers, and with him reportedly having the work ethic the Cavs organization is looking for in their full-rebuild, I’d imagine Osman’s continued work as a shooter with director of player development Mike Gerrity, who has helped so many players in that area, should get Osman’s open shooting more on the right path, which should help him inside the arc.

Osman has good passing feel for a young wing, and showed last season that when there is more spacing around him, he can be a valuable secondary playmaker for the Cleveland Cavaliers with him having nice passing vision and he often showed he can initiate productive ball-swings.

So though at times Osman can be somewhat undisciplined and force it, I’d think under the tutelage of Beilein and others, such as assistants J.B. Bickerstaff, Lindsay Gottlieb and Antonio Lang, that Osman should make good decisions and not cause many run-outs the other way in coming years.

Nonetheless, his turnover rate of 11.0% was not awful last season, but again, decision-making can always improve, anyhow.

A game last season against the Detroit Pistons where Osman had 21 points and six assists really showcased the full array for Osman, and though this sort of thing can’t be expected on a nightly basis, it proved that he’s more than capable of being a key core piece as a multifaceted scorer and secondary playmaker (highlights per Free Dawkins).

With more talent potentially around him offensively with Love more, Garland, Windler and at times Porter and/or a nice post-up/roll man in Ante Zizic on the floor in coming years, I’d think Osman could be more efficient as a shooter and get more realistic assist opportunities, which would fall right in line with consistency being his biggest focus area moving forward.

Defensively, Osman struggled mightily last season, and I’d expect him to have plenty of issues both with the Cleveland Cavaliers feasibly playing small-ball often in coming years causing him to defend opposing 4’s, and against starting small forwards, Osman’s had problems with on-ball defense due to not having great lateral quickness, but let’s not dismiss that Cleveland had the league’s worst defensive rating in 2018-19 (per NBA.com), and that they could realistically repeat that in 2019-20.

Osman, though, is a solid defensive rebounder, and did get better at contesting jump shooters as last year moved along, and with him having at least quality defensive IQ as a team defender, if Cleveland can draft a rim protector in the next year or two, I’d think Osman could be much more competent defensively, especially in minutes with Porter, a potential lockdown defender on the perimeter, on the floor with him.

Again, Osman showed last season that he projects as a key piece in coming years for the Cavaliers, but the next step for him is to be more consistent, and I ultimately believe with more players around him that can make things happen for themselves, that Osman will have less peaks and valleys.

Next. Cavs: Where Osman ranks against other starting SFs. dark

Taking that projection into consideration, I completely agree with KJG’s own Tyler Marling; the Cavs should sign Osman to a contract extension before the start of the 2019-20 season and not let restricted free agency next offseason dictate his value.