1 stud and 1 dud for Cavs in disheartening loss to Hawks on Thursday

Cavs stud: Cedi Osman

Cedi Osman has not been regularly involved in the rotation recently, and while I haven’t been his necessarily biggest cheerleader in the past two seasons before this year, it still has been odd that he hasn’t been in games much, if any, of late.

Dylan Windler has been doing decent things, particularly defensively and as a rebounder, and he’s gotten some time over Osman, realistically, recently. Windler had been in a G League stint with the Cleveland Charge, though, and we still haven’t seen him knock down shots much, if at all, and at this point, I do still find it odd that Osman had been the odd man out of late for Cleveland.

That said, Osman for much of the season has given the Cavaliers a jolt off the bench, and him having clarity with this role this year has helped. On the year, he’s had 10.8 points per outing, and even with a rough stretch of shooting, has been a decent catch-and-shoot threat overall, and has helped some as a passer and driver.

Now, Osman hasn’t been able to find consistent success post-All-Star break, and he’s going to have streakiness in his game, but he has still had a resurgent season, and it was good to see an impressive night from Osman again.

A good amount of the production from Osman was with the game in garbage time on Thursday night, sure, but he was giving the Cavs energy, honestly, throughout the game, and I’m not going to discount his 21-point performance here. He was shooting the ball with confidence, going 3-of-6 from three, got to the line, going 4-of-6, and tacked on six rebounds and four assists.

He did have three turnovers, however, by and large, Osman was a bright spot for the Cavaliers last night in an otherwise blowout loss that was disheartening, at this point in the season.

As a side note, even with some mistakes, which are understandable, Moses Brown gave the Cavs some solid play, too, with 15 points and 13 rebounds. He was recently on two 10-day deals and was signed via two-way deal, per a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, and for a developmental big, there could be something there.

Next, we’ll touch on the dud for Cleveland at Atlanta on Thursday.