We’re getting deeper into the offseason here for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and looking ahead to next season’s outlook, it’s difficult to know what to expect for Cedi Osman.
Osman is a player that’s been fairly polarizing over the last few seasons. I’ll be the first to admit that the dude has his flaws. In the 2020-21 campaign, he connected on by far a career-low 30.6 percent of his three-point attempts, and the lows were pretty darn low.
This season, he fared better in his rotational role, connecting on 35.7 percent from three, on a similar volume to the season prior (5.5) of 5.4 triple attempts per contest. He had 10.7 points in 22.2 minutes per contest, in what was 66 appearances.
The narrative surrounding Osman has typically been that there’s going to be peaks and valleys for him, and that’s just how that cookie crumbles. Through five seasons, including four where he was a regular rotational contributor, he’s been, well, inconsistent.
Osman is a player that has shown the capability to get hot, particularly since moving to a bench role, but there’s others involved, and similarly to last season, it does seem to be a legit possibility that he could be traded before next season.
He’s on a reasonable deal from here, and has shown he’s capable as a rotational shooter that can make some plays for himself at times and others, and he’s still only 27. So in theory, maybe he’s part of a package this offseason, and another club could foresee him as possibly a valuable rotation piece.
That being said, I do still think there’s a legit argument to be made to keep Osman around.
There’s a clear rationale for the Cavs potentially keeping Osman around.
I wouldn’t suggest it’s set-in-stone or anything, but Osman could part of a trade package before next season, one would think. That’s based on others involved, such as Lauri Markkanen obviously, Dean Wade and Lamar Stevens to some degree, along with Caris LeVert and Isaac Okoro.
And whether or not LeVert, for instance, who is on an expiring deal currently, were to be part of a package and/or with draft capital, Osman could be a player that’s set for a change of scenery, one would imagine.
In a report from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required) in a mailbag set of responses recently, Osman was a player that was mentioned as potentially being a trade piece, it seemed. Fedor was more so suggesting as a hypothetical in that sense.
To reiterate, I’m not forecasting that as a foregone conclusion before next season for Osman or anything, just to get that out there. It does seem that Osman is a trade candidate that’s regularly included in hypothetical trades too, though, and with his deal non-guaranteed for 2023-24, that factors into it as well.
However, with Osman, there were plenty of occasions this now-past season where he gave the Cavaliers a notable lift off the bench, and at times, can create for himself for stretches when he’s decisive, and is not overextending offensively. Of course, I again acknowledge that Osman is a player that’s going to be streaky, and as a rotational shooter, that’s at times had been relied upon to have a larger role, that’s been the case.
With a sense of clarity for his role in 2021-22, Osman had numerous games where he gave the Wine and Gold much-needed energy off the bench, and the capability to ignite runs has been there from him. He’s one of the Cavaliers’ more instinctive cutters as well, and is a smart off-ball player offensively.
So, overall, while there’s defensive limitations for Osman, and I’ll always concede that, which is why he shouldn’t be starting from here, and the streaky shooting can be head-scratching, I still believe Cedi is a viable offensive bench option. He could be hard-pressed for minutes from here with the Cavaliers, but we’ve seen what he can provide as a bench shooter when he’s in-rhythm, and when the confidence is there, he can get on hot stretches.
With that in mind, there’s an argument to be made for Osman to stick around, at least until next season and maybe if Cleveland solidifies backup point guard, which I believe they will, that can help Osman get off to a nice start again.
If Osman were to be traded at some point during next season midway/near the deadline as part of a package, I wouldn’t be shocked, necessarily. But his late-season DNPs at times again last season were odd, to me, and I think he should at least be kept around through the offseason.
Osman has also always been an exemplary teammate, and when he gets going, it can ignite the whole group. Maybe he ends up being retaining through the next trade deadline as well; we’ll table that for a later date, anyhow.
As we expressed, though, there’s a number of others involved for Cleveland, so we’ll have to see on the Osman-potential offseason trade front. And guys such as Lamar Stevens, especially, along with a possible wing draft selection come to mind in that regard, not even including Markkanen in that rotational sense.