The Cleveland Cavaliers added three players in the 2019 NBA Draft in Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr., all of whom could develop into key contributors for Cleveland. Here, we’ll take a look at the burning question for each of those pieces for next season.
With the uncertainty regarding whether or not the 2019-20 NBA season will eventually resume, given concerns involving the novel coronavirus pandemic, I figure it’s relevant to seemingly hit on what’s played out already for the Cleveland Cavaliers and focus on perhaps what’s to come.
Rewinding to last summer, the Cavaliers ended up adding three players in the 2019 NBA Draft, with those being Darius Garland at fifth overall, Dylan Windler at 26th overall and Kevin Porter Jr. at 30th overall.
Porter was first selected by the Detroit Pistons (who acquired that selection from the Milwaukee Bucks via trade before the draft), but Detroit ended up trading his rights to Cleveland in exchange for four future second-round draft picks and cash considerations.
Thus far leading into the NBA’s season suspension, Garland and Porter have shown promise, and while Garland, in particular, has had his struggles, he still has shown good playmaking feel and him becoming just the second Cavs rookie to hit 100 three-pointers in a season and canning 105 triples in just 59 games, as noted by Basketball Reference, has been encouraging.
Meanwhile, as a bench contributor on most occasions, Porter has flashed a boatload of potential already and has seemingly the highest ceiling of any the Cavs’ youngsters, also including Collin Sexton in that mix.
Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to see what Windler can bring for Cleveland yet, as he hasn’t appeared for the Cavs at all in 2019-20, due to complications involved with a stress reaction in his left leg, and he was previously ruled out the rest of the season. Even with the season potentially resuming at some point, I still wouldn’t expect Windler to play this go-round, either.
With it being uncertain if the NBA’s current season will eventually come back or not, though, let’s take a gander at the burning question for next season for each of member of the Cavs’ 2019 draft class, beginning with Garland.