Cavs can’t be banking on Cedi Osman simply bouncing back

Last season was not one to write home about for Cleveland Cavaliers wing Cedi Osman. Osman had his share of inconsistencies in 2019-20, sure, but last year was a particularly rough one.

I don’t gloss over that Osman was moved to a bench role, which had to have affected his rhythm to some extent.

The Cavs also needed Osman to handle even primary playmaking duties at times throughout the season because of injuries, too, and generally, his playmaking was a positive. He had 4.1 assists per-36 minutes, which was a career-best in Year 4 for him, and in recent seasons, when the opportunities have presented themselves, his passing has been a bright spot.

Nonetheless, with Osman, it is apparent that when he’s out there, from here mostly as a bench contributor, the 26-year-old wing needs to be hitting his perimeter looks. Although the offense had its highs and lows overall, and he did disappear at times in 2019-20 as a starter, he did knock in 38.3 percent of his 4.9 three-point attempts per game.

The year prior, when Osman had his first full year as a regular contributor, and started at the 3, he did hit 34.8 percent from three, which was fine.

Unfortunately, even after a great start to the year, last season Osman only connected on 30.6 percent of his 5.5 three-point attempts per contest, which in essentially his third season mostly in the rotation, which was concerning. That seemingly led to him getting five straight DNPs at one point.

With the shooting woes Osman had last season, and him having ups and downs with his impact offensively game-to-game overall in recent seasons, it’s clear that for Cleveland, they can’t just bank on Osman turning it around.

And with his defensive weaknesses, he’s not realistically a regular starting option anymore, so the Cavaliers need to be realistic about what to expect from Osman and need to hedge against that, to some degree.

The Cavs can’t be banking on Osman simply bouncing back as a shooter for the bench.

Osman could turn things around, and I’m hoping he does for Cleveland. But the Cavs shouldn’t be having a long leash with him in relation to the early portion of next season, to drive it home.

I’d like Dylan Windler to be a factor, as he could be a key perimeter shooting presence based on him knocking down 40.6 percent of his three-point attempts in a four-year career at Belmont, so perhaps there’s that element. Although it’s tough to say with him, as Windler was somewhat underwhelming last season in hitting only 33.8 percent from downtown, and he’s only appeared in 31 games in two seasons due to injuries.

So we’ll have to see on that front, but Windler could play with Osman in some stretches still anyway.

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In any case, while Osman theoretically could still be a noteworthy bench shooter for Cleveland, they shouldn’t be banking on that game-to-game. I’m not suggesting they are necessarily, and Osman has previously been mentioned in trade rumors; it’s still a relevant topic regarding the wing rotational outlook, however.

To that point, I’d love for Cleveland to hedge against the inconsistency with Osman, whose confidence has simply not been there at times, and the Cavs potentially signing Garrison Mathews, Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk, or perhaps Denzel Valentine could help in doing so.

A possible trade target such as Terrence Ross could, too; we’d have to see if that could be a reasonable scenario, though.

Or at the very least, with Isaac Okoro often at the 3 anyhow, if Osman is not showing consistency in the first say, 12 games of next season, I’d look for the likes of Dean Wade to be an alternative as a jumbo 3 fairly regularly.

That’s with him hitting a respectable 36.6 percent from three last season and his confidence seemingly growing as last year progressed. Wade’s typically in the right spots defensively, while doing a decent job when needed in containing drivers, too.

Larry Nance Jr., if he sticks around (as he appears to be a potential trade chip for Cleveland), has been impactful as a 3 for stretches for the Cavaliers, too, as an aside. That’s with how he can affect games in a number of ways, but there’s always injury concerns with him.

Either way, while he again could maybe bounce back in a notable way and be more of a contributor game-to-game as a shooter, the Cavs shouldn’t be giving Osman a considerable chunk of minutes if there’s too many instances where he’s just flatout off.

And if Cedi eventually is traded at some point and/or just out of the regular rotation due to too many shots without a chance of going in seemingly, oh well.