The Cleveland Cavaliers can no longer afford to trade Cedi Osman

The Cleveland Cavaliers need Cedi Osman now.

There was a time when the Cleveland Cavaliers could view Cedi Osman as an expendable asset. The team had plenty of scoring and plenty of play-making already. With guys like Ricky Rubio, Collin Sexton, and Darius Garland to handle the ball-handling, and then guys like Sexton, Lauri Markkanen, and Kevin Love handling the mid to long-range scoring, it seemed like Osman was an expendable asset.

The team then drafted Ochai Agbaji, a three-point shooting specialist. His arrival all but confirmed that Osman was looking at his final days in a Cavaliers uniform.

That was all until the Cavaliers made a trade with the Utah Jazz to ship Sexton, Markkanen, and Agbaji over to the Jazz in exchange for Donovan Mitchell. Yes, there were picks involved but the player movement is the key point here. The Cavs lost scoring on all three levels by trading away Markkanen, Sexton, and Agbaji.

Now, all of a sudden, Osman is as necessary as ever.

The Cleveland Cavaliers need to utilize Cedi Osman better than ever

Right now, it looks like the key three off the bench, scoring-wise, will be Rubio, Love, and Osman, with Isaac Okoro and your random big being the other reserves. That means Osman will need to be the secondary scorer off the bench, potentially even the main sixth-man threat depending on what the team does with Love.

In a perfect world, the Cavs would flip LeVert and Okoro, in order to get a more dynamic scorer instead of LeVert and allow Dean Wade more time, but it seems the front office is content with the roster as is.

That means that Osman will need to find his stroke and be far more consistent with it going forward. Considering he’s shooting just 30.8% from three during EuroBasket, he’s going to be coming in with some doubters.

Though it should be noted, he’s also putting up 64.7% from inside the three-point line while playing for Turkey. He’s also averaging 5.2 on his box +/- as well. So while Osman’s three-point shooting remains streaky, he is absolutely showing he can contribute to this Cavs team.

Which he’ll need to do, as the team no longer has the depth it once had.