J.B. Bickerstaff’s treatment of Cedi Osman is baffling

The Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff is not playing one of his better offensive players in Cedi Osman.

I’m a fan of J.B. Bickerstaff of the Cleveland Cavaliers, but I firmly believe that no coach is perfect. Not even Terry Francona of the Cleveland Guardians, and he’s a Hall of Fame, Top-5 Manager of All Time type of guy. No coach is perfect, but I believe Bickerstaff is very good and gets a lot out of this roster. Could someone get more? Maybe, but Bickerstaff is doing a good job.

That said, his historic misuse of Cedi Osman is baffling, as it’s not the first time the point-forward has found himself on the wrong end of Bickerstaff’s disappointment. But the Turkish-wing is far from a bad player, and in fact, is a very good all-around player. Yet, he earns the scrutiny of Bickerstaff when no one else does.

Guys like Lamar Stevens and Caris LeVert get a break, when they struggle as much, if not more than Osman.

Look at Steven’s advanced stats. His offensive box plus-minus (OBPM) is -2.4, his defensive box plus-minus (DBPM) is 0.6 and his overall box plus-minus (BPM) is -1.8. Caris LeVert’s OPBPM is -1.8, his DPMB is 0.3 and his overall BPM is -1.5. Osman is at  -2.1 OPBM, a 0.6 DPBM, and a -1.5 overall BPM.

To further deep dive, look at their RAPTOR scores. Stevens has a -1.4 on offense and a 0.0 on defense. LeVert has a -0.6 on offense and a +1.9 on defense. Osman is at a +0.8 on offense and a +2.1 on defense.

He also has the same true shooting percentage as Stevens, who is far limited as a scorer and a better true shooting than LeVert. By all metrics, Osman is either as good, if not better than the other two men yet he gets far fewer opportunities to make mistakes.

Cedi Osman is not how he’s presented

Here are some factual statements about Cedi Osman. Osman is 26th in the NBA on NBA.com’s best +/- score with a 5.5, which is higher than Donovan Mitchell’s 5.0 (32nd) or Dean Wade’s 4.9 (34th). Those two men have been glowing additions to the team since their respective arrivals and Wade’s presence is being felt with him injured. Just as Mitchell’s is felt without him. Osman’s is being felt without him as well.

That’s not all, StatMuse has Osman at 14th in the NBA with a +/- of +212. Higher than Mitchell, higher than Kevin Durant, and just under guys like Marcus Smart, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green.

Osman is a great all-around player, who can rebound, pass, play defense, and score. That’s not in dispute, we have statistical evidence that it is all true.

We have game tape that proves it’s true. He’s a great cutter to the basket yet he’s hardly ever put in that situation to score. He’s a good passer but he’s rarely given the second team to lead. All he’s been amassed to most nights is standing in the corner and waiting. That is clearly not his forte, yet Bickerstaff is forcing him into that role.

Osman is more Hedo Turkoglu than Kyle Korver, yet he’s being forced into a role that he’s clearly not built for. He needs to be diverse in his scoring opportunities, and for some reason, Bickerstaff won’t allow him to do that. And despite being a better defender than Stevens, LeVert, or Darius Garland, he’s held to a different standard.

We can go deeper but it’s clear that Osman deserves minutes and Bickerstaff is just wrong in his evaluation and demands on Osman. When you have so many different metrics, calculated differently but all saying the same thing; how can you ignore them?