Osman’s minutes are Cavs storyline to watch in last regular season week

The only thing that’s been consistent about the opportunities for Cleveland Cavaliers wing Cedi Osman this season is they have been inconsistent.

Osman’s averaged 20.3 minutes per contest and has appeared in 74 games for the Cavaliers, but he’s had some strange DNPs again this season, which happened at points last season, and it’s been frustrating how he’s in and out of the lineup.

There have been instances where he’s had a number of single digit minutes as well, for what it’s worth, and post-All-Star break, in 16 appearances, there’s been three of those, and two times where he’s played less than 13 minutes.

In fairness, Osman does have his flaws, and defensively, he can be exposed in some matchups. There are some curious shots from Osman, too, and the guy is not exactly Kevin Huerter as a shooter. At some points, the wind seemingly takes Osman’s catch-and-shoot looks, and yes, the Cavaliers play inside.

Despite some shooting woes, though, and the minutes-share variance, he has given the Cavs a lift in plenty of instances this season, and post-All-Star break, he has again proven he can do so. In his 16 appearances in that time, he’s connected on 42.3 percent of his three-point attempts, which have amounted to 4.4 per outing.

Granted, there still have been rough Osman performances, and there’s inherently going to be others in the fold at the 3 spot.

That being said, with Isaac Okoro currently dealing with lingering knee soreness, and with Cleveland’s bench still in need of some of a shooting lift, how Osman is managed in the Cavaliers’ upcoming last three regular season contests is a key storyline to watch.

Osman’s minutes-share in these last three Cavs regular season games is a key storyline to watch this week.

Osman has played 17.2 minutes per outing in the past five games for Cleveland, in which he’s had 7.7 points per contest, and connected on 44.4 percent of his attempts from three. Now, he was a minus-19 in just 12 minutes in the Cavaliers’ loss to the Atlanta Hawks last Tuesday, and was out of sorts defensively, similarly to several other Cavs then.

But, with Okoro set to miss a fourth straight contest, and there being some uncertainty involving his status for the Cavaliers first-round series, as of now at least, it’d be sensible to have Osman have some legit run this week to close the regular season.

Now, Dean Wade has gotten a chance in the past two games, and defensively, he’s more viable than Osman. Wade is multi-positional on that end, and if the Cavs have to, it might be sensible to have Wade as a de facto starting 3 if needed.

I was definitely a proponent of that before Wade endured his prior AC joint injury, and it was reportedly a possibility that he’d have to have shoulder surgery. He’s also still dealt with some pain even since his return, as Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com stated in his report on Okoro’s situation.

Regardless, it’d behoove the Cavaliers to have Osman log some legit minutes for a few stretches in games in these last three regular season outings this week, as they look to shore up homecourt advantage for Round One.

Osman did have nearly 21 minutes of action in Cleveland’s loss on Friday night to the New York Knicks, and did register 14 points and shot four-of-eight from three. On Sunday night in a win against the Indiana Pacers, though, he played only nine minutes.

Osman was a minus-10 against Indy, but in a game where the Cavs weren’t getting much from Lamar Stevens, for example, it could’ve been sensible to re-insert Osman a bit more, to see if he could get it going.

Objectively, however, there’s others involved, and Caris LeVert and Ricky Rubio will likely still have minutes to close the regular season, and to keep their rhythm, here.

However, with how Osman can heat up for the Cavs bench, if truly given the opportunities, it’d be a meaningful move to have him have a real chunk of minutes in these last three regular season games.

That will be a key storyline to watch in these contests at the Orlando Magic twice and in the regular season finale versus the Charlotte Hornets.