At this point, it’s tough to forecast when Cedi Osman is going to have stretches of meaningful play for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He’s appeared in 68 games, and for the year, he’s played in 20.6 minutes per contest, both of which would seem about right at this stage. But, his minutes-share has been all over the map this season, and in his last 10 appearances, he’s played single digit minutes twice, and had two DNPs.
Osman is not one of the players that is going to be receiving guaranteed minutes from here and come the playoffs, as opposed to others in Caris LeVert and seemingly Ricky Rubio (when Rubio is active), and Osman’s minutes-share will fluctuate. It’s been a frustrating thing as it pertains to the swingman in the past two seasons, too.
To Osman’s credit, though, when the opportunities have been there, he has given the Cavs bench a lift in a number of contests. It’s clear there’s going to be some volatility with Osman’s play, and given his situation within the rotation as not surely being able to have a steady dose of minutes as the season has worn on, one has to accept that.
Those caveats aside, for this Cavaliers club, when his number is called from here, it’s apparent the team needs Osman to get perimeter shots up, and keep doing what he does to counter that as a heady cutter and ball-mover.
When Osman’s number is called, he’s going to send it, and the Cavs have to accept that.
There are going to be some rough shots from Osman, and in Cleveland’s loss on Wednesday to the Philadelphia 76ers, he was three-of-10 from three, and the wind looked to have caught some of those misses. No, this is not referring to a field goal miss for a Cleveland Browns player, either.
There were other positive moments from Osman in that Sixers game, as he had five rebounds, and did hit his four free throw attempts, en route to 15 points in 30 minutes of play. It was just the misses that drew the puzzled reaction of the then-national play-by-play crew, and Cavaliers fans aired their frustrations in the Twitterverse.
It was hardly surprising to see and hear that. Osman has his flaws, and he’s long been a streaky player from the perimeter in his rotational wing minutes.
That said, Osman did connect on six triples on Tuesday in Cleveland’s win over the Charlotte Hornets, and on Friday, while he had five points, he did have four assists and two steals in Cleveland’s 117-94 win over the Washington Wizards. In that one, Cedi one has to take it with a grain of salt, but Osman was also tied with Darius Garland with a team-high plus-21.
What’s apparent with Osman, looking onward, is he’s never going to be shy when it comes to trying to make his imprint on the offensive end, when his number is called by Cleveland. And for the Cavaliers, they have to accept that with him.
Now, to reiterate, it’s difficult to project what the minutes-share might be game-to-game for Cedi, given the inconsistencies for his opportunities throughout the season, and dating back to last season. Come the postseason, it’s tough to say on that front as well, given what the Cavaliers might be looking for in particular games, whether it’s potentially what Osman could provide, or Lamar Stevens, as a defender/energy forward, for instance.
Needless to say, with Osman, however, they have to know he’s not going to shy regarding letting it fly, for better or worse. But, if he finds steady chances, he has shown he can give the Wine and Gold a shooting/energy lift, and that could pay dividends for a spotty bench group, in terms of scoring.