Cavs: Cedi Osman must shoot it better from 3 early on next season

During this now-past season, Cedi Osman had a fairly disappointing season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was in mostly a bench role for Osman, as compared to the previous two years for him, so perhaps that had some to do with it. And in fairness, he did have a decent 10.4 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.9 assists in 25.6 minutes per game.

Albeit no matter how you slice it, after having hit 38.3 percent and 34.8 percent from three-point range in the two seasons prior, Osman hit only 30.6 percent of his three-point attempts in 2020-21.

Along with that, Osman shot a career-worst from two-point range, and with the two, ended up, as one would assume, having a career-low 45.8 effective field goal percentage.

On a positive note, I do give Osman plenty of credit for his playmaking throughout the now-past season when he was regularly in there. He did have a career-best 4.1 assists per-36 minutes and the same went for his assist rate then of 17.3 percent.

I don’t discount his passing abilities, and frankly, with how he did show it at times, I would think we could very well see more of Osman as a de facto 1 next season in minutes-share off the bench. That/the passing instincts for him is the key seller for minutes for him in 2021-22/perhaps looking onward, too.

Circling back though, the inconsistencies from deep were concerning last season; that has to change in the earlygoing next year.

Clearly, Osman must shoot it better from three early on next season.

Osman’s shooting woes from beyond the arc were disappointing in 2020-21, from my perspective and I’d imagine many Cavs fans. Given that he was a 38.0-plus percent guy the year prior from there, even while there were ups and downs in other areas, the inefficiency last season was a bit puzzling.

Osman did start off shooting it well from deep, but that didn’t last and there were far too many rough games/stretches from him in that regard from there. It was head-scratching to me in that way, and didn’t aid the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Taurean Prince and others nearly enough to have a consistent impact game-to-game.

Osman knocked in only 27.1 percent of his then-5.4 three-point attempts per outing in February, and in March, that hit rate was just 20.4 percent on then-4.5 three-point attempts per game. Those amounted to then 13 and then 11 games, respectively, for what it’s worth.

From there, in nine games in April, Osman hit 26.5 percent from deep on 3.8 attempts per contest. Cedi did close out somewhat better, with a 33.3 percent hit rate from there in six games in May, on what was 6.5 attempts per contest.

He was in a bigger role mostly in that span with Cleveland so injury-riddled, and a bit in April, albeit I wouldn’t expect him to be in there more than say, 20 minutes per outing next season early on. That’s with Cleveland having a bunch of wings and them potentially set to draft a wing/combo forward.

Nonetheless, with Osman, it’s difficult for me to say certainly at this point, but if the three-point shooting isn’t better for him early on next season, it’ll be very difficult for him to get a consistent minutes-share game-to-game. We did see him later into the season have five straight DNPs, even, and largely because of his shooting woes it seemed.

Now, we’ll have to see if the likes of Dylan Windler can stay healthy, to go with perhaps Prince, and I’m not glossing over Lamar Stevens, although he did get his share of playing time at the 4.

In any case, for Osman, he could eventually be dealt, perhaps even before next season, as both he and Prince were previously key players mentioned in trade rumors. But he could still seemingly be a viable rotation piece for Cleveland, and maybe things could turn around for Osman if next season the shooting from three shows more consistency in the earlygoing.

That is easier said than done, however. Albeit we have seen Osman be a capable deep shooter off-the-catch previously, mixed in with some pull-ups in that realm.

Again, though, how the 26-year-old Osman starts out next season from three-point range will be telling to me for his outlook, even with me valuing his playmaking, at least in a secondary role.