The Cleveland Cavaliers will be wrapping up NBA Summer League play on Friday against the Sacramento Kings, and Cleveland rookie Dylan Windler shouldn’t have a big workload in that matchup.
As we’ve touched on here at KJG recently, the Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t shown a whole lot in terms of wins in NBA Summer League (as they only have one), and that’s been the case in both the Salt Lake City and Las Vegas Summer Leagues.
Cleveland 2019 26th overall draft pick Dylan Windler, along with previous Utah Jazz two-way player Naz Mitrou-Long and fellow Summer League invitee Marques Bolden, have been notable contributors for the most part, though.
The soon-to-be 26-year-old Mitrou-Long, as our own Josh Friedman previously detailed, has made a case at least start out the 2019-20 season as Cleveland’s other two-way player (Dean Wade is reportedly the other going into next season) due to his steady dose of playmaking and shot-creation in leading Cleveland’s offense in Summer League play; it is Summer League, but his experience playing for the Salt Lake City Stars (the Jazz’s G-League affiliate) has clearly paid dividends for him as a pick-and-roll creator/scorer.
The 21-year-old Bolden has also done a solid job as a roller/screener and rim protector for the Cavs’ Summer League squad, as evidenced by him averaging 8.5 points on 50.0% shooting, to go with 1.50 blocks in 20.3 minutes per contest in four games in Vegas (per NBA.com), and could be a decent option for a two-way deal down the road, too, with Tristan Thompson and/or John Henson potentially being traded at some point due to their expiring contracts after next season.
The 22-year-old Windler has also shown he could be a good contributor for Cleveland in the coming years as a floor-spacer/shooter, quality rebounder, ball-mover and overall, highly-alert player on both ends that just knows where to be to help his club.
In three games in Vegas, Windler has put up 11.0 points on 40.0% shooting (but with plenty of three-point attempts), to go with 4.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game (again, per NBA.com).
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As was previously highlighted, Windler looks to be the type of bench contributor that could fit in seamlessly and line up at times (not every night, to be clear) at the 2-4, considering he has the potential to blend with plenty of types of other players on the floor for Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Beilein and Cleveland’s coaching staff in the coming years, given his great feel for the game on both ends, with his off-ball awareness, in particular.
Windler has shown some secondary playmaking ability, and I would imagine will at least make proper passing reads in the 2019-20 season/the near future and hit open shooters and when the lane is there and hit rollers/cutters in their sweet spots to finish when the opportunities present themselves and opposing defenses address Windler’s perimeter shooting with hard closeouts.
Moreover, with the way Windler reportedly took a tough hit to the face and then was out for the rest of Cleveland’s last Summer League game against the New Orleans Pelicans likely due to precaution after playing just eight minutes (per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor), don’t expect a big workload for the rookie in Cleveland’s last Summer League game against the Sacramento Kings Friday (which is at 8 P.M. EST. on ESPNU, per Cavs’ Official Twitter).
To be clear about Windler here, at least it was, as the team put it, (per Fedor) only a “shiner.”
Anyhow, Windler has played pretty well in Summer League, even with the mostly-lack of NBA talent around him on the floor, and that’s while opponents have mostly had considerably more talent than Cleveland’s Summer League team, which has not the likes of Darius Garland or Kevin Porter Jr. at all, either in SLC or Vegas due to reported injury precaution (which I’m sure has not had Cavs fans thrilled).
Taking that into account, and with the way Windler’s last Summer League game ended, the Cavaliers have their last game against the Kings on Friday, and Windler shouldn’t be relied on to provide a bulk of the offense.
The game realistically doesn’t matter much, other than Cleveland being able to get another look at players such as JaCorey Williams (not the right spelling there, G-League Basketball Reference) one more time, who played pretty well for the Canton Charge the last two seasons, and brought nice energy for Cleveland in Summer League.
Of course, I’d expect Windler to not have a big offensive burden in this last one, considering Fedor noted that Windler maybe done with Summer League after what happened in his last contest, anyway.
Furthermore, let others get more of a playmaking shot in this consolation game, Cavs, and give Windler ample rest in a consolation matchup between the 28th (as in Cleveland) and 13th (as in Sacramento, both per NBA.com) seed in Vegas, please.