3 Cavs players that will start off slow next season
By John Carter
The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking to improve in 2020-21, which will be under way soon.
The regular season kicks off in a few weeks on Dec. 22 for the NBA’s 2020-21 campaign, and for the league’s first half of the season schedule, that was released on Friday. Along those lines, for the Cleveland Cavaliers, they are set to begin their next season on Dec. 23 versus the Charlotte Hornets, and are looking to bounce back from back-to-back 19-win seasons.
They have struggled recently, but with that many young players on the team, there is plenty of reason to expect growth from them.
Anyhow, earlier this week I highlighted who you can expect to start the fastest to begin the season, but who will start the slowest for the team?
We’ll get into that end of the spectrum this go-round.
Here, I’ll hit on the three Cavs players I think will begin the 2020-21 season slow.
The first is Cleveland’s regular starting 3 for the past two seasons.
#1: Cavs wing Cedi Osman
Cedi Osman is entering Year 4 of his NBA career this upcoming season. He received more playing time in the 2018-2019 season and it paid off with big increases to his totals and increased his points per game by 9.1.
His percentages took a dip but that’s expected when you go from a role player next to LeBron James to a starter on the team. At the beginning of the 2019-2020 season, Cleveland and Osman agreed to terms on a four-year, $30.8 million contract extension as well.
You would’ve expected an even bigger season from Cedi after that but you didn’t get to see it, as Osman’s scoring went from 13.0 points per outing to 11.0.
Albeit Kevin Love being mostly healthy, along with the arrival of Darius Garland, for instance, played into that, and Osman’s field goal attempts and usage decreased. He seemed to disappear for stretches offensively, unfortunately, though.
On the plus side, his shooting from three-point range did increase 34.8 percent to 38.3 percent, which is a very good jump.
In this upcoming season, I fully expect Cedi to be a solid part of the rotation, but there are two players this year who are likely to be taking minutes away from him. Isaac Okoro, who was their fifth pick of the 2020 NBA Draft, and Dylan Windler, who is a first-round pick from the previous draft, and is now slated to make his debut, are those.
Okoro provides stellar defense, something the team desperately needs, and Dylan Windler is a phenomenal shooter. Cedi could easily regain a large role as the season progresses, especially if he has made improvements of his own during this extended offseason.
But, the Cavaliers are surely interested in seeing how Windler plays in games, and the same goes with Okoro, who even in a worst-case scenario, should be the best wing defender on the team. Okoro fills a huge need for the Cavs roster, especially with their smaller lineups. For now, I see Cedi having a slow start.