Dylan Windler could establish himself as Cavs’ best cutter next season

Dylan Windler has the capability of being a knockdown shooter for the Cleveland Cavaliers, but his cutting shouldn’t be discounted.

It was really unfortunate that we did not see Dylan Windler in action in the 2019-20 season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Windler was dealing complications involved with a stress reaction in his left leg.

On the plus side, it would appear that WIndler should be able to go next season. He’s reportedly progressing well in his recovery, and though it will likely take him some time to fully get his legs under him, Windler I believe will be plenty fine.

What is a reasonable expectation for Windler is that he’ll be a quality floor spacer, which should help the likes of Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Kevin Porter Jr. in his minutes on the floor with them.

Windler knocked down 40.6 percent of his three-point attempts in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont, and that included him hitting 42.9 percent from downtown in his senior campaign. That was on 7.1 attempts per outing, per Sports Reference, and as a senior, he put up 21.3 points per game.

Windler has the potential to be a true knockdown catch-and-shoot player for Cleveland. That relates to both spot-up situations, and also, off of movement. Even next season, I firmly believe we’ll see Windler make quite an impact from shooting off of relocation off of initial deliveries from the likes of Larry Nance Jr. and/or Kevin Love.

That said, Windler has a tight handle, too, and while it’s not nearly at the level of Garland or Porter, Windler should be able to create space fairly frequently in the pull-up game. Similarly to Garland, I foresee Windler using stepbacks often in coming years as well, with defenders often overplaying him off-the-catch.

I also believe, given Windler’s good feel in terms of ball moving and him being a willing passer and having the vision to hit rollers over the top, such as Nance I’d imagine, that he can be a solid secondary playmaker, too. That’d ease the burden on Garland and Porter.

Another key aspect of Windler’s game, though, should help make him a well-rounded offensive player for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Windler is a polished finisher and has great timing, and as a result, he could establish himself as the Cleveland Cavaliers’ best cutter next season.

At 6-foot-6 and with a quick release/compact stroke, Windler again projects as a key shooter for Cleveland.

It wouldn’t be a complete shock if he eventually overtook Cedi Osman, either, given Windler having a better handle, and being perhaps more capable in the pull-up game, in terms of volume.

Granted, Porter, who still held his own last season in minutes at the 3 as Osman’s primary backup, could potentially be slotted in more so there, with Osman moving to a backup 3 with Windler at the 2 somewhat. Either way, I’d expect all three to get a significant chunk of minutes, and perhaps even with KPJ at the 1 at times, Windler at the 2 and Osman at the 3 in some stretches.

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Anyhow, next season, I could definitely see Windler’s cutting quickly be a crucial part of his game in relation to contributing for the Cavs. That’s at least off the bench.

Often in instances at Belmont, defenders would overplay Windler as a shooter in the off-ball sense, and that was understandable. He proved to be dangerous in that regard in his time as a Bruin, and Windler has a quick release and at his size on the perimeter, gets shots off easily.

Playing off that, though, what could make Windler even more of a key offensive threat for the Cavs is his cutting and finishing to counter his shooting.

Windler times up his cuts especially well when he senses those overplays to his perimeter shooting or pull-ups and as a result, times up his cuts to the interior.

With Windler’s ambidextrous finishing ability in those situations and with his control to go with that, Windler gets it done in settled offense after his cuts inside.

While Osman is a quality cutter, for example, and Sexton improved in that area of his game last year, Windler is considerably bigger than Sexton, who also is more of an on-ball player anyway, and Windler has more touch than Osman.

Windler’s footwork near there was a crucial reason why he placed in the 96th percentile in shots around the rim in the half court as a senior, too, per Synergy Sports.

Windler, similarly to Porter, is more than capable of hitting dump-offs to bigs when opposing defenders rotate over to help, too.

While Porter, who is a heck of a finisher with both hands in his own right, got much better in terms of his cutting feel as 2019-20 progressed, I’d personally expect Windler to be utilized as a cutter more so, with Porter himself operating often with him on-ball.

Nance is a quality cutter, too, but he’ll also get his share of on-ball responsibility, too, and also be a secondary playmaker at the elbows/high post.

Anyway, factoring in how his presence will be felt as a shooter, and with his polish as a finisher and constantly moving in settled offense, I definitely could see Windler establish himself as the Cavaliers’ best cutter next season.

That’s seemingly in relation to the impact possession-to-possession when he’s on the floor, where I’d foresee him to have more of a presence off-ball than others, realistically. While his off-ball presence is always relevant, Love will have more on-ball workload/perimeter shooting volume than Windler with him having a bigger minutes-share, for example.

Hopefully Windler can stay healthy to prove his worth as not just a key shooter, but cutter as well for Cleveland, and perhaps even their most effective cutter at some point in 2020-21.

He is capable of that with his touch, footwork/ball fakes and timing.