Cleveland Cavaliers officially signed Turkish star, Cedi Osman, to a three-year contract. The team announced this signing on their website on July 18 and Osman is officially the newest member of the Cavaliers. He is a 6'8" forward who spent four years playing for Anadolu Efes in Europe, and this will be his first NBA season.
According to reports, the Cavaliers signed Osman to a three-year deal worth $8.5 million. The forward was the 31st overall pick in the 2015 NBA draft and he was originally selected by the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, the Cavaliers acquired his draft rights, but they didn't want to get him to the NBA until this season.
Cedi Osman in Cleveland
Unlike many other NBA rookies, Cedi Osman will enter the NBA with multiple years of professional basketball experience. Beside playing in Turkey for Anadolu Efes, Osman was also a member of Turkish National Team in a few international competitions, including the 2014 FIBA World Cup.
During his career in Europe, Osman averaged 6.7 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. He appeared in 98 games and played 18.2 minutes on average. Last year, the forward played in 35 games, averaging 7.1 points per game on 40.9 percent shooting from the field and 34.0 percent from the long range.
While all this experience will definitely help him in the NBA, it is questionable if he can be a decent player.
A lot of players who come from Europe find it difficult to adapt to the NBA as playing style is much faster and different than anything they have experienced.
Good thing for Osman is that he will be on a championship contender. This means that he probably won't play a lot, but he will have a good chance to learn from veterans on the team and adapt to the league before he starts getting consistent minutes.
Will the Cavaliers trade Osman?
There are a lot of speculations that Osman will be traded in a package deal to the New York Knicks for Carmelo Anthony. While this may not happen, the timing for Osman's signing is perfect if the Cleveland Cavaliers still want to pursue Anthony and save their offseason with a big trade.
In the meantime, the Knicks have paused trade talks with other teams and they are trying to work things out with their superstar small forward.
However, it seems that Anthony is not willing to help the Knicks after they attempted to trade him so many times. It seems that he now wants to be traded to another team, which wasn't the case a few weeks ago.
