The Cleveland Cavaliers and wing Cedi Osman reportedly agreed to a four-year contract extension on Thursday, and a few Cavs players come to mind right away in terms of being affected by spending several seasons with Osman.
Based on the way he grew throughout the course of the 2018-19 season, which was his first year as a regular starter and second season overall in the NBA and both with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Cedi Osman seemed to show the makings of a key piece in coming years for Cleveland.
Osman had 13.0 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 32.2 minutes per game last year and that included 75 starts in 76 appearances, per Basketball Reference.
Osman had a world of trouble on the defensive end of the floor, but some of that was due to him playing against bigger players while playing the 4, which he was playing for 55% of his minutes last season.
Osman was out of position, particularly on the defensive end, because of the Cavaliers having so many injuries last season, especially to key bigs. Cleveland star Kevin Love and veteran Tristan Thompson, the team’s two starters at the 4 and 5 positions, combined to only appear in a total of 65 games in 2018-19 because of injuries.
Though Osman has been inconsistent against NBA 3’s on the defensive end, with good team defensive instincts and with him realistically improving off the ball as last season progressed, he can become more competent on that end, though.
Moreover, with the way Osman showed plenty of growth overall last season and proved to have secondary playmaking capability, it was really encouraging that Cedi and the Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly agreed to a four-year contract extension on Thursday, according to the New York Times‘ Marc Stein.
Cedi Osman has agreed to a four-year, $31 million contract extension with the Cavaliers, his agents Jeff Schwartz and Jordan Gertler of @excelsm tell @NYTSports
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 25, 2019
On Friday, the deal was officially signed, as The Athletic‘s Kelsey Russo reported, for reference.
Cedi Osman has signed his four-year contract extension for $31 million with the Cavs, a source tells @TheAthleticCLE.
— Kelsey Russo (@kelseyyrusso) October 25, 2019
Also, looking back, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst noted shortly after the initial report from Stein that the deal was ultimately for “$30.8 million” with a non-guaranteed fourth year, and in terms of the details year-to-year, Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor had more.
Cedi Osman has agreed to a 4-year, $30.8 million extension with Cavs sources said. Final year of the deal is nonguaranteed (@TheSteinLine first reported agreement).
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) October 25, 2019
Here’s the financial breakdown, per Fedor, who hit on how the compensation is declining over the length of the deal.
"“A team-friendly contract, Osman will make, according to sources, $8.75 million in the 2020-21 season, $8.05 million in 2021-22 and $7.35 million in 2022-23. The fourth, non-guaranteed year, is worth $6.65 million.”"
Fedor also highlighted how Osman’s extension timeline makes perfect sense with possible pay upgrades for guard Collin Sexton, and then the 2019 Cleveland rookie draft class of guard Darius Garland and wings Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr., players that all could be big contributors, along with Osman, in coming years.
"“Osman’s third year, the final guaranteed season of this new contract, lines up with the first year of a future Collin Sexton contract extension — if the 2018 No. 8 draft pick continues to grow and keeps proving that he can be a integral piece of the Cavaliers’ rebuild. The timing on Osman’s fourth year isn’t an accident, either, as that’s when 2019 draft class (Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr.) could potentially be up for raises.”"
Additionally, who have a bunch of expiring contract players currently on the roster in Thompson, big John Henson and guards Jordan Clarkson, Matthew Dellavedova and Brandon Knight, and could simply let those contracts expire to free up a ton of cap space, the free agent class next summer is not shaping up to be too fantastic.
According to Real GM and Yahoo! Sports’ Keith Smith, Cleveland is currently projected to have $31.8 million in cap space, but I wouldn’t expect that to be nearly the case, considering the Cavs could seemingly trade one of or potentially several of those expiring contracts throughout this season, which would feasibly lead to bad contracts on their payroll going into the 2020-21 season.
With that being said, it would seem to be a real possibility that the likes of Sexton and the 2019 rookies could eventually be extended by the Cavaliers in the near future and further into Osman’s deal to secure those players as key pieces for Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the mostly-new coaching staff, along with Osman.
At any rate, a piece that comes to mind as one that will be affected by spending several seasons with Osman is a big that has seemingly developed nice chemistry with the 24-year-old Osman.