Dylan Windler’s finishing ability should help the Cavaliers offense

The Cleveland Cavaliers haven’t had Dylan Windler active in game action yet, but hope is on the horizon.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Dylan Windler can do in the next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Windler was not active at all in 2019-20 for the Wine and Gold due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, but hopefully, he’s mostly healthy going forward.

Fortunately, according to a recent report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, Windler has been given the “green light” to participate in the Cavs in-market bubble workouts, which will begin on September 14 and run through October 6. As KJG’s Grant Puskar alluded to, that is encouraging for the Cavaliers and Windler, too.

I’m sure Windler will take some time to get adjusted to the NBA game, which is understandable, but even pretty early on, he should aid Cleveland next season. That’d be feasibly in a bench role in stretches at the 2 and 3, but his minutes-share could seemingly increase as next season progresses.

In his run on the floor, I’d imagine that Windler should be a key floor spacer, given his shooting range, smooth stroke, quick release and ability to hit looks off-the-catch via spot-ups and off movement.

Now I completely get it wasn’t the NBA level, folks, but Windler is a heck of a shooter, and also via the pull-up/step back variety. He hit 40.6 percent of his 534 attempts from three-point range in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont. Windler hit 42.9 percent of his 7.1 triple attempts per outing as a senior as well, and had 21.3 points per outing during that 2018-19 campaign.

Windler is a capable secondary playmaker that I believe could handle some pick-and-roll ball handling duties at times, too, and he has good vision/ball-movement instincts. Additionally, though, what shouldn’t be glossed over is Windler’s finishing ability.

Windler’s finishing ability should help the Cleveland Cavaliers offense.

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To couple with his impressive shooting touch in a number of ways, Dylan Windler is a highly capable finisher that placed in the 96th percentile on shots around the rim in the halfcourt as a senior, per Synergy Sports.

With both hands, Windler is able to finish near the basket consistently, and more so as a cutter I’d think after feeds from Darius Garland, Porter, Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr., he should be a nice target to look for in that realm.

When you factor in Windler’s all-around shooting, him being a high quality finisher as well should make him a truly seamless fit alongside a plethora of players.

That should enable the Cleveland Cavaliers to capitalize off-ball on defenders really overplaying his perimeter shooting/handoffs and lead to quick cuts going toward the paint/along the baseline. For further context, Windler placed in the 97th percentile as a cutting scorer in 2018-19, again, per Synergy.

Overall, Windler should be able to finish with touch with both hands and times cuts really well and plus, after hard closeouts to his spot-ups and/or pull-ups, he should be able to get some buckets inside to counter those on-ball, too.

In addition, while I wouldn’t necessarily expect it nearly as often as say Porter, Windler did flash capability of getting up for lobs at Belmont, and on the weak side, perhaps Garland or Porter could hit Windler over-the-top in settled and/or transition. That’d make him even tougher to account for off the ball for opposing wing defenders as a result, also.

In transition, Windler, who does have good team defensive feel that aided in him having 1.4 steals per outing in 2018-19, is highly capable of finishing on-ball above the rim with both hands, too. That could definitely help the Cavs offense in the open floor sense and give Cleveland another transition weapon near the basket to go with the likes of KPJ, Nance and Sexton.

Moreover, Windler being such a polished pull-up threat, which should play into the secondary transition game as well, should aid him as a finisher when the opportunities present themselves on-ball.

So looking at next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers and in coming years, if Windler can hopefully be mostly healthy, his finishing ability should help the Wine and Gold, too. That’s also when looking at the putback/offensive rebounding instincts of Windler.

This dude won’t be just a perimeter shooter when he’s out there, Cavs fans.