Cedi Osman might be hard-pressed for Cavs minutes, once again

I thought it was weird that in the later stages of the regular season, Cedi Osman was not involved that much in the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ rotation.

Now, for one, I am aware that Osman over the years with the Cavaliers has been a player that’s had his ups and downs. Since the 2018-19 season, which was his second year, he’s hit 34.8 percent of his 5.2 three-point attempts per contest, with two of those seasons as a regular starter and the last two mostly as a bench contributor.

In that span, Osman has had 11.4 points per outing, with him having 10.7 and 10.4 points per contest in the last two seasons, for context. This season, he connected on 35.7 percent from three, whereas in 2020-21, he had a difficult time for much of it, partly because of role inconsistencies, and hit only 30.6 percent from three, a career-low.

For a good chunk of this now-past season, though, I thought Osman gave the Cavaliers a spark in a more clarified role as a bench sparkplug, often catch-and-shoot player. There was inherently going to be streakiness, but for much of the year when the opportunities were there, Osman helped give the team a lift.

Nonetheless, as we alluded to earlier, in the closing stretch of the regular season, Osman’s opportunities were trimmed down, which has occurred in other instances, such as in 2020-21 as well. I wasn’t personally a fan of that, as Osman has been a player whose game is going to be streaky, given his role, anyway, and next season, it would seem that he could hard-pressed for minutes again.

Osman might be hard-pressed for Cavs minutes early next season, again.

Osman did get some playing time in Cleveland’s play-in loss to the Brooklyn Nets, and was off then, and did not play in the Cavaliers’ play-in loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

In the closing stretch of the regular season, however, there were instances when Osman had some DNPs with Dylan Windler, even, essentially receiving PT over Osman, which threw me a loop, I have to say.

Osman had a minutes reduction in other games regularly in the season’s closing stretch, as his minutes-share was 16.6 in his last 11 appearances, but there were two DNPs in that span, and he had two DNPs prior to that. Osman was admittedly up-and-down post-All-Star break, and his plus-minus in that 11-game span was minus-3.3 with some clunkers.

While Lamar Stevens coming on did have some to do with the minutes reduction, Osman and Stevens are players that could and did get some time together, but the Windler minutes at times were odd, even with his defensive contributions. Windler’s shooting was simply not there nearly enough this now-past season.

In any case, despite Osman being a guy that has his issues defensively on-ball, and he’s going to be a player that is hot and cold, he provided a lift for the team on plenty of occasions in the season. So from my perspective, it was puzzling that with confidence being huge with him, that he was the odd man out at times and had his minutes trimmed in the later stages of the regular season, especially with the team being banged up and needing a spark.

Additionally, while it’s not certain, it would appear that Osman could potentially be a player that could be part of a possible trade package this offseason. He and/or Windler both could seemingly be moved perhaps with future draft picks, particularly if the Cavaliers were to choose a wing in feasibly the late lottery next month.

Now, Osman is a guy that can get hot in a hurry for the Wine and Gold in a bench role, and he’s an energy player that is an instinctive cutter and solid secondary passer, and his teammates love him. So maybe Osman sticks around.

Regardless, though I still believe he could give the Cavs a spark, and even more so if they can land a quality reserve primary playmaker, by the looks of it, Osman may once again, be hard-pressed for minutes, this time at the outset of next season.

That’s something to keep an eye on looking onward involving the 27-year-old reserve wing, who had 22.3 minutes per game last season. This upcoming 2022-23 campaign will be Cedi’s sixth career season, all of which thus far have been with Cleveland.