#4: Osman’s not going to have as much on his plate offensively
Osman was one of the key options offensively for the Cavs in 2018-19, with Collin Sexton and bench scoring extraordinaire Jordan Clarkson as the top two scorers.
Given the barrage of injuries to Cleveland last season, and most notably, Kevin Love, who only appeared in 22 games mostly due to reported toe surgery, that had to realistically be the case for Cedi, and Osman was streaky in that role.
In 2019-20, though, Osman’s shot attempts are way down and his playmaking opportunities seem to have gone down substantially, which in this rebuild, could potentially stunt his growth a bit, but on the bright side, Osman has been much, more efficient.
Osman had 13.0 points on 11.1 shots attempts per game in 2018-19 and had an effective field goal shooting clip of 50.4%, and again, he was streaky. To start this year, he’s had 9.0 points on just 6.5 shot attempts per outing but had an effective field goal shooting clip of 67.3% (per Basketball Reference).
Osman’s hitting 52.9% of his three-point attempts to start 2019-20, which isn’t sustainable, but in the times he’s gotten shots in general, he has been much more in-rhythm than he was on a bunch of attempts last season, where Cleveland’s offense was often choppy and players such as Osman had to simply create for themselves with little movement.
Maybe this role with less on his plate could suit Osman better, but I’d still at least like to see Cedi get more playmaking chances.
Last season, he had a respectable 12.1% assist rate, as compared to just an 8.6% assist rate this year.
He has good vision, and proved to be a solid secondary playmaker with less floor spacers, such as Love and Darius Garland, around him last season.
We’ll see if Osman, who reportedly agreed with the Cavs on a four-year extension last week, gets more usage and/or playmaking chances in the near future.
For now, it is clear, however, that Osman won’t have nearly as much responsibility to score and/or facilitate as he had last season. The other positive to that is Osman will have more cutting opportunities in Beilien’s motion offense, though, which suits him really well.
Plus, I’m sure players such as Love and Garland will consistently find Cedi in those situations.
Alright, so on to a big positive in regards to these current Cleveland Cavaliers.