Cavs sign Cedi Osman to 3 year deal

The Cleveland Cavaliers have signed 2015 second round pick Cedi Osman to a three year contract according to beIN Sports Turkey.

The deal is worth $8.3 million over three years according to the report, the team had to use part of their mid-level exception ($5.2 million) to sign Osman. The team still holds roughly $2.4 million of that exception left to sign free agents plus the veteran’s minimum.

Brian Windhorst of ESPN reported that $700,000 of the salary will go towards Osman’s buyout from his team overseas.

This increases the team’s luxury tax bill to $70.8 million and $211 million in total salaries.

Osman was spotted in Las Vegas last week during the NBA Summer League and reportedly met with head coach Ty Lue  along with others in the organization.

He has been playing professional basketball overseas since 2013 with Anadolu Efes in the Euroleague and will play with the Turkish national team in EuroBasket later this summer.

The 22 year old is what the Cavaliers should be looking for in a wing player as he can shoot the three pointer at a decent percentage and has been known as a good defender overseas.

In 98 games over four seasons in Euroleague, he’s averaged 6.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists and 0.7 steals in 18.2 minutes per game.

I wouldn’t have high expectations for Osman but the Cavaliers like him and have been reportedly wanting to bring him over for a while.

As a small forward, he currently would be behind Lebron James and Richard Jefferson but the team needs some youth injected into the roster to give the veterans some rest to keep them fresh for the postseason.

They’ve had some success with international players before like Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao but have had some failures as well such as Vitaly Potapenko and Sergey Karasev who failed expectations after being such high draft picks.

The team should bring Osman in slowly to get him acclimated with the NBA game as it’s far different than how they play basketball overseas.

Osman may not even play a game here though. The Cavaliers are one of two teams that Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony would waive his no-trade clause to come play for a contender.

With the Cavs limited with trade assets, they may have to part with Osman to make a deal happen. Once he’s officially announced by the team, the team would have to wait 30 days to officially move him in a trade.

 

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