It’s hard to project where Cedi Osman stands long-term with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Cedi Osman had me believing, to a large degree, that he could be a viable starting 3 for the near future for the Cleveland Cavaliers after his 2018-19. In that campaign, of which was his first NBA season starting regularly, Osman had an encouraging season.
Then, he had 13.0 points per game, to go with averaging 4.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists. While I’m sure Kevin Love being mostly sidelined had some to do with it, Osman seemed to make real strides in his second season with the Cavs, and first year seeing consistent minutes.
Unfortunately, I was wrong in my belief that Osman could be a viable starting 3 option for the near future.
Cedi was a nice catch-and-shoot presence in his 2019-20 season for Cleveland, as he hit 38.3 percent of his 4.9 three-point attempts per contest, which was good to see. Albeit Osman disappeared throughout games far too often offensively, and on-ball, he often was out of rhythm and had a decline to 11.0 points per game.
The presences of Love more and Darius Garland played into that, but when you also factor in Osman’s defensive struggles against starting 3’s, it became more apparent as last season wore on that Cedi is not Cleveland’s long-term starting answer at the 3.
I still like what Osman provides as a cutter, and he helps out in a ball movement sense, but even while I’d expect him to be Cleveland’s starting 3 at the season’s outset, it’s difficult to project his outlook long-term with the Cavs, quite frankly. And while he hasn’t seemingly been a key subject of trade rumors, weighing a few factors, it would appear that Osman could be a potential trade candidate at some point.
We’ll demonstrate why Cedi could potentially be that for the Cavs here.
I’ll hit on the first part of that reasoning next.