Cleveland Cavaliers: What’s up with Cedi Osman?
By Mack Perry
#1: Have a marked improvement from beyond the arc for the Cavs
There is no way around it. Osman must improve upon his marksmanship from deep. As previously stated, he is a career 35.0 shooter from past the arc and has shown not only the ability but the willingness to take those shots. That is not the issue. It’s all going to come down to confidence and consistency.
We’ve seen brief flashes of “microwave scorer” potential out of Osman but he must carry this ability into each game:
It would be unwise to assume that he will ever become a sniper in the mold of Kyle Korver, but he is certainly capable of more than the paltry 30.7 percent he is averaging right now. His recent benching may prove to ignite his competitive drive moving forward which may have been what Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff had in mind when doing so.
#2: Earn Bickerstaff’s/the Cavs coaching staff’s trust
Speaking of the head honcho, Bickerstaff has given Cedi Osman numerous opportunities to demonstrate that he belongs within the rotation as evidenced by Osman’s 45 appearances and 17 starts this season. Be it from necessity or observation, he has had a long leash thus far.
That trust has not yielded favorable results as of yet though and Bickerstaff may have cut his losses and decided to roll with other options at this point. Cedi has to prove that his head coach’s/the coaching staff’s trust seemingly wasn’t unfounded and make the absolute most of the time that he gets on the court and in practice.
Osman has topped out at 13.0 points per game in the past and if given the proper role again and not forced to play out of position as has been the case due to persistent injuries to both the guard and power forward positions, he just may be able to get back to being a reliable reserve scorer.
He must prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is still one of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 10 best players and can affect the game in more ways than one.
Moving on, we’ll hit on the other key point of emphasis for Osman/his case for potential resurgence and examine what could be next.