The Cleveland Cavaliers announced that rookie wing Dylan Windler will miss the rest of the 2019-20 season on Monday due to his reported stress reaction in his lower left leg. Here’s what that means for the club.
Coming into the 2019-20 season, I was pretty excited about what wing Dylan Windler could bring to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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Windler, who was Cleveland’s 26th overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft (via the Houston Rockets), shot 40.6% from three-point range in a four-year career at Belmont and had 21.3 points per game in his senior season, as demonstrated by Sports Reference.
He also flashed his deep range playing in Summer League for the Cavs, and he would’ve been a solid ball-mover for Cleveland with good secondary playmaking instincts that’d come in handy.
The 6-foot-6 Windler, frankly, would’ve been a nice primary backup for Cedi Osman at the 3, and I would’ve thought Windler would’ve meshed well with fellow rookies Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., along with a variety of other pieces, such as Larry Nance Jr., too.
Unfortunately, we won’t see Windler at all this season
Unfortunately, the Wine and Gold have not had Windler available all season, as Windler has been battling a reported stress reaction in his lower left leg since before the season started. The team announced on Monday that he’s now going to miss the rest of the year, too.
STATUS UPDATE: G/F Dylan Windler will miss the remainder of the 2019-20 season due to ongoing symptoms related to his left lower leg stress reaction.https://t.co/ysWF17jjJe
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) January 13, 2020
This has to have been devastating for the 23-year-old rookie, and I wish him the best of luck in the recovery process. According to the aforementioned status update from the Cleveland Cavaliers, Windler will have to have surgery, “which is scheduled for January 21.”
So what does this mean for the Cavs, then?
A few things stick out at first glance to me.
The first one is involving Cedi Osman.