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.
Potential role #2: Backup small forward
Coming off the bench, there could be a logjam that the Cavs will have to figure out IF Cedi were to be placed in a reserve role. With Kevin Porter Jr. showing massive potential and Dylan Windler, the 26th pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, set to come back from injury, there aren’t many minutes to go around.
This situation could go a lot smoother than many may think though, as Porter Jr. is best played at the shooting guard position and Windler COULD find much success as a power forward in the NBA with his 6-foot-6 size and shooting.
Coming off the bench may be a great move for the team and Osman as he would then be going against lesser talent thus, his play should be better. Hypothetically speaking, a bench lineup of Dante Exum-Porter Jr.-Osman-Windler-Larry Nance Jr. is quite small but, this lineup possesses great versatility as all of these players have the ability to guard multiple positions.
Lastly, considering that Porter Jr. could be the sixth man of this team next season, the bench lineup shown above gives Porter the best opportunity for success. Replacing Alfonzo McKinnie with Osman as the backup small forward adds a much-needed shooter to the bench as well as gives the bench another ball-handler/potential facilitator, in theory, depending on if Cedi improves in that area or not.
When detailing what Avdija could bring for the Cavs and specifically, hitting on the players that he would help the most, I highlighted just how much better Porter Jr. plays when alongside a knockdown shooter such as Osman, as opposed to someone like McKinnie.
The difference was essentially night and day and that looks to be based on the fact that it allows Porter Jr. more space to operate. KPJ is an iso-heavy player and his handle, as well as his athletic ability, means that he possesses the ability to blow by defenders. Not only would having a near-40.0 percent three-point shooter mean that an opponent cannot help off without suffering consequences but, Osman could also be seen as a “bail-out” option.
Osman has been great in late shot clock situations during this year, too, as he is shooting 40.6% on three-point shots when the shot clock has been between four-seven seconds left on it.
Potential role #3: Backup point forward?
In one of his first media availability sessions as the Cleveland Cavaliers head coach, as the aforementioned Gilinsky touched on, Bickerstaff talked about how he wanted the Cavs to experiment with lineups the rest of the season.
More from King James Gospel
- 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
- The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
- 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
- 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
- This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead
Osman’s name wasn’t brought up in that particular interview but, giving him some backup point guard minutes may be something that Bickerstaff looks to do.
Considering the Cavs have experimented with numerous lineups such as playing Nance Jr. at small forward and may look to have Porter Jr. play some point guard in the future, as Bickerstaff basically mentioned in that media availability before, Point Cedi isn’t an unrealistic idea.
Also, factoring in that Matthew Dellavedova is set to become a free agent at the end of this season (whenever that ultimately is) and with Exum’s injury concerns, the thought of Point Cedi could turn into reality.
After looking at everything that is stated above, I believe that Osman will be the starting small forward once again for at least the first month or so of the season in the next campaign for Cleveland.
My reasoning behind this prediction is that looking at the team, Porter Jr. seems to have the best chance at beating Osman out for that starting small forward spot.
The thing with KPJ is he has played a lot better as a shooting guard than he has as a small forward. Looking at the upcoming draft, players such as Edwards, Avdija and Auburn’s Isaac Okoro are all wing players that the Cavs could look to add if available at Cleveland’s selection, which should be very high, as the Cavs currently are projected to land the 2020 NBA Draft’s second overall pick, per Tankathon. Granted, I know the draft lottery rules are different and that’s anything but a certainty.
With all of these players though, it may be best for the Cavs to ease them in and have them come off the bench rather than just throwing them into the wolves and have them start right away.
Lastly, looking at free agency, there are multiple wing players with the ability to do what Osman does and then some. The problem is that the Cleveland Cavaliers, considering the state of the team and their location, are not a free agency destination and if they were to add players, they would have had to overpay for them.
At the beginning of the year, the Cavs were one of the few teams with a lot of projected cap space heading into the following free agency but, the trade for Drummond with the Detroit Pistons gives Cleveland a contract worth nearly 30 million dollars so any free agency plans that they may have had are now gone. I would imagine Drummond is very likely to opt into his $28.8 million player option for next season.
All in all, keeping Osman as the starting 3 may be the right move and having consistency helps to build team chemistry and improved chemistry can lead to more wins. The addition of Drummond also gives the notion that the Cavs will try to compete for the playoffs in this upcoming season.
If that’s the case, this is another reason as to why it would be wise to go with Osman over a potential draftee as the starting small forward, but down the road, I’d expect Osman to eventually be moved to the bench in favor of feasibly an upgrade after a potential draftee becomes more comfortable.