NBA Free Agency: Cedi Osman signs with three-year deal with Cavaliers, per report

After a long wait, Cedi Osman is finally coming over to the NBA. The Turkish forward has signed a three-year deal to join the Cleveland Cavaliers. The news was first reported by Nikos Varalas of eurohoops.net.

Osman’s contract is for three years and $8.5 million. At this point it has not been clarified whether or not the contract is backloaded. If it isn’t, Osman will be paid around $2.83 million this season. That figure is just over half of the MLE of $5.2 million. If the Cavs managed to negotiate a backloaded deal, they potentially could preserve more of the exception to go out and sign a free agent. That will be an important detail to keep an eye on as the information comes in.

Assuming Osman will remain on the team, this will be the first real prospect the Cavs have to be excited about since the return of LeBron James. While Osman isn’t a dynamic scorer, he is an intelligent off ball player that has shown three-point range recently, as well as strong finishing in transition. He gives the team young legs that should complement the stars of the team well.

There will definitely be an adjustment period, however Osman’s four years of playing high level professional basketball in Europe will help ease the transition. It’s a higher level of competition than college basketball and while there may not be the same athleticism there as the NBA, it’s still compete against the strength of grown men.

Update - 10:47 a.m.

Per Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, the Cavs will in fact sign Osman. They will also pay $700,000 of his $1 million buyout with Anadolu Efes, the club Osman played for in Turkey.