The much-coveted title of “Best Turkish NBA Player” is up for grabs right now. I look around the league, see some scattered Turks, and none of them are playing exceptionally well. Honestly, as it stands, Furkan Aldemir could make his long-awaited return to the league and take the title easily.
By the way, I am still waiting for Izzet Turkyilmaz over here, and I’m getting impatient.
I had hoped that Cedi Osman would be the one to rise up and take the title for himself, that he would continue the improvement we saw last season and establish a new reign of Turkish dominance in the NBA. Alas, my hopes have been dashed as he has regressed in the scoring department (the only department I care about, honestly) on a team that is a bit lacking in suitable scorers. Is this because Kyle Korver left? My theory is that his regression is because Kyle Korver isn’t around to make sure his jumper is silky smooth anymore. If the Cavaliers want, the Bucks would be willing to trade Korver back to Cleveland in exchange for Osman. That wouldn’t fix the problem of Osman not having Korver around anymore, but it would fix the Bucks’ problem of only having one Turk on the roster.
I am sorry for ignoring Osman’s 18-point game a week ago, but here’s the real truth of the matter: I have standards for him now. And it’s his fault that those high standards exist, because he set them with his solid play last season. 20 points is enough, 18 is not. If he doesn’t like it, he is fully welcome to suck for this whole season and I can readjust my expectations for him for the next one. I’d prefer if he’d go back to his old self.