Burning question for each Cavs’ 2019 draft pick for next season

Can Windler improve the Cavs’ shooting off of movement next season?

As was previously mentioned, Windler has not played at all with the Cavaliers in 2019-20 due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg. Considering that, I wouldn’t expect him to be a bunch off the bench at least seemingly for a good bit into next season.

However, if Windler does get into game shape, and I believe he eventually will, he could be a solid contributor for the Cleveland Cavaliers, as a catch-and-shoot perimeter player, in particular.

In a four-year career at Belmont, the 6-foot-6 Windler was able to connect on 40.6 percent of his three-point attempts, including a 42.9 percent hit rate in his senior season, and he had 21.9 points per outing in his last collegiate season, per Sports Reference.

Moreover, the burning question for Windler to me for 2020-21 is can he improve Cleveland’s shooting off of movement/off screens?

It’s not as if that’s been completely nonexistent for the Cavaliers, as especially post-All-Star break in the time J.B. Bickerstaff took the head coaching reigns, Cleveland’s ball movement was much better, and it freed up pieces such as Kevin Love, Cedi Osman and a bit here and there, Sexton, in terms of shooting off of movement and/or in the off screen game.

Windler did show he’s highly capable of shooting off of movement in college, and though it was at Belmont, I believe he could definitely bring much more of that capability to Cleveland’s offense next season as a rotational wing.

Osman, again, has flashed some of that this year, and Sexton, and to an extent, Garland, have been able to knock down pull-ups after curling around screens, which has been a plus. Hopefully with Windler in the fold, though, Cleveland’s offense can have more off-movement shooting/more off-screen volume than 4.0 possessions per game next year, of which they placed in the 59th percentile in terms of efficiency, as they’ve had this season, according to Synergy Sports.

Granted, Windler is an instinctive cutter, good athlete and would add a sound positional rebounder and solid ball-mover to Cleveland’s rotation as well. Most importantly, though, if he can bring more of a movement shooting element to Cleveland, and not simply be a floor spacer, it’d make his impact much greater and open up more rolling/slipping opportunities for Nance, Love and/or Drummond, too.

At any rate, this isn’t a sure-fire expectation for Windler as a going-to-be-rookie who will probably take some time to get acclimated to the NBA game, especially from a defensive perspective, and he’ll likely need some time to learn how to manipulate screens to really get shots off easily and with volume at this level.

Thirdly, we’ll move on to the burning question for Porter next season.