Predicting Cedi Osman’s role moving forward for the Cavaliers

Cedi Osman is a player many Cleveland Cavaliers fans seem to love, but the Wine and Gold could use an upgrade at the starting small forward position for what’s to come down the road, and seemingly at some point next season. We’ll look at a few potential roles for Osman here.

Cedi Osman has quickly become a fan favorite on the Cleveland Cavaliers. Just three years into his NBA career, he has shown a shooting ability and some playmaking potential that he hadn’t really shown during his time with Anadolu Efes, his prior team he played at in the Turkish league before ultimately coming to the Cavs.

Despite many improvements, there are better options out there for the starting small forward spot in the 2020 NBA Draft and in free agency.

Looking at Osman’s career so far, it doesn’t look like he will be anything more than a role player and here, we are going to look at three potential roles that Cedi could be in next season and make a prediction of which role best suits the team.

Potential role #1: Starting small forward

Cedi has been the starting small forward for the Cavaliers over the last two seasons and head coach J.B Bickerstaff may look to keep him there for this upcoming season, whenever the following season does turn out to be.

It’s uncertain if the 2019-20 season will eventually resume, given the concerns regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic, and for recently reported potential alternative scenarios/financial implications of a cancelled season, you can view those here and also here, per KJG’s Dan Gilinsky. Plus, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski also said on ESPN’s “Get Up” on Tuesday that essentially if the league does resume, they’ll want to have a champion “by Labor Day Weekend.”

Swinging back to Osman’s play, though, over the last two years, Osman is averaging 12.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.5 assists on a true shooting percentage of 54.3 percent, according to Basketball Reference. Diving into the advanced stats, Cedi has a net rating of minus-9.0 this season, per NBA.com, meaning that when he is on the court, the Cavaliers have gotten outscored by 9.0 points per 100 possessions.

Looking at why Cedi could be a starter next year, he has meshed well with the rest of the starting lineup and has been effective without the ball in his hands. This season, he is shooting 38.8 percent on catch-and-shoot three-pointers, as indicated by NBA.com’s shot tracking data.

This type of shooting ability is going to be crucial for the Cavaliers moving forward and Osman fits well alongside the ball-dominant players that we see in the starting lineup such as Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, and, at times, Kevin Love and Andre Drummond.

Cedi Osman has also improved on his all-around game. This season, Osman is the only player to be top five in total points, assists, rebounds, steals, and blocks, regarding the Cavaliers’ team statistics.

But once again, despite improvements, Osman’s play this year thus far leading into the season’s suspension has been okay at best and with players such as Georgia’s Anthony Edwards and Deni Avdija of the I-BSL’s Maccabi FOX Tel Aviv declaring for the 2020 NBA Draft, a demotion seems to be coming for Osman.