Continued reliance on Osman
Cedi Osman, given that Garland appears to be the Cavs’ primary playmaker of the future, along with Kevin Love being mostly healthy this year, has not had near the same amount of on-ball creation responsibility he had in 2018-19.
That being said, Osman has done pretty well, by and large, playing the majority of minutes at the 3 for Cleveland head coach John Beilein and the coaching staff.
Plus, Osman’s defense, off the ball, in particular, seems to have taken positive strides.
Osman’s had 10.6 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 29.4 minutes per game in 2019-20, as noted by Basketball Reference. The key, though, has been that Cedi’s been used much more as a cutter off-ball as compared to last season, and Osman is shooting 37.6% on 4.6 three-point attempts per game, as again, Basketball Reference shows.
Clearly, he’s benefited from the passing vision of Love often on the wing or in the mid-post, and Osman has received plenty of effective kickouts and wraparounds from Garland, and Matthew Dellavedova and Porter have done so some to Osman, too.
If he’s able to play meaningful minutes regularly the rest of the season, I’d think Dante Exum could mesh well with Osman in some minutes together on the floor as well.
So again, especially with Porter out realistically through the All-Star break due to a reported left knee sprain, I’d expect the Cavs to play Osman 30-plus minutes per game the rest of the way.
Along with that, with the Cavaliers feasibly trading Kevin Love near the February 6 trade deadline, given recent reports and with him seemingly having two feet nearly out the door already, Osman could be used as a playmaker more in the last two months of this season.
Now to the other thing that sticks out to me in regards to Windler reportedly missing his entire rookie campaign (at least formally his rookie campaign).