Cavs: Alfonzo McKinnie can help in Dylan Windler’s defensive development

Alfonzo McKinnie is going to be mostly a defensive piece for the Cleveland Cavaliers, provided he sticks around.

Alfonzo McKinnie projects as primarily a defensive contributor for next season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. That’s feasibly at the 3 a bit and I could very well see mostly at the 4 spot.

McKinnie is on a deal that’s non-guaranteed beginning next season, but with his defensive capabilities, I firmly believe he should stick around. The soon-to-be-27-year-old seems to be a tremendous teammate, too, and McKinnie, who would be due to make under $1.8 million next season, isn’t set to cost the Cavs much in coming years.

Granted, it’s evident that McKinnie, who was previously on two 10-day deals with Cleveland in 2019-20 before being signed to a team-friendly four-year deal in February and played 14.8 minutes per game, won’t be an every night player.

At least I wouldn’t expect that to be the case. McKinnie is not a floor spacer or key bench scorer, as he’s averaged 4.3 points in a career 13.1 minutes in 126 appearances and is a career 30.7 percent three-point shooter. He also hit a ghastly 21.5 percent from deep during this now-past season for Cleveland.

Nonetheless, McKinnie in spurts is a nice rotational player to have for the Cavs. That’s due to his ability to defend on the wing and with him often doing a solid job against opposing 4’s, with his toughness, anticipation and early work to deter entry looks, he can do admirable work against a bunch.

He is a high quality cutter and finisher, on the offensive end, and gets after loose balls and is very active on the glass. Overall, McKinnie has proven he can be the consummate glue guy for Cleveland in coming years, as KJG’s Grant Puskar demonstrated.

Circling back, in regards to McKinnie’s defensive prowess, I’d imagine he could help one young Cav wing a considerable amount, too, and that’s Dylan Windler.

McKinnie can help in Windler’s defensive development for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Windler of course did not appear at all in 2019-20 for the Cavaliers because of complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg. But fortunately, Windler was recently given the “green light” to participate in Cavs voluntary in-market bubble workouts set to begin next week, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor.

So hopefully, Windler can be mostly healthy next season, and especially after what will be a long layoff after the Cavs were not a team invited to Orlando for the season’s restart, due to novel coronavirus concerns. I expect Windler to be just fine for next season and I’d think going forward, anyhow.

Windler will take some time to get adjusted to the NBA game, sure, but I believe he’ll bring quite the floor spacing element for the Cavaliers and for pieces such as Kevin Porter Jr., Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, among others.

While I get it wasn’t the NBA, Windler hit 40.6 percent of his 534 three-point attempts in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont, and he has a quick release and can fire away via spot-ups and off of movement as well. Windler is a polished pull-up shooter and good ball-mover, too, and his finishing ability should help the Cavs offense.

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That said, I’d think it’s fair to expect that Windler will have his issues on the defensive end, which would be understandable, though. However, as was briefly touched on, I believe that Alfonzo McKinnie could help Dylan Windler in his defensive development for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

McKinnie does a nice job against opposing 3’s and 4’s, and on the perimeter, does nice work in relation to deterring drivers, and by and large, does commendable work in deterring pull-ups.

McKinnie can help Windler behind-the-scenes in practice and perhaps on the bench in-game some in regards to on-ball defense of opposing wings/how to cut off angles more, which could Cleveland, in turn.

McKinnie could also aid Windler in the team sense if the former were to stick around, too, and perhaps a rookie draft pick wing for the Cavs as well, for example.

McKinnie has great team defensive feel that you see when he’s in there, and his activity in passing lanes and timing led to 1.4 steals per-36 minutes in 2019-20. McKinnie is usually on-time with his contests of shooters as a rotator and takes proper angles to contest and navigate through off-ball screens, too.

Moreover, in film study/on the sidelines, I’d imagine that McKinnie could be a valuable resource as a high IQ 3/4 defender for Windler/perhaps a rookie wing draft pick in the team defensive sense and help them improve as rotators.

Additionally, though his deal is to be non-guaranteed beginning next season, McKinnie it would seem would have a good chance of sticking around thanks to his defense when he’s out there.  That could enable him to have more of a behind-the-scenes impact than perhaps last season, when there was seemingly even more uncertainty involving him.

Windler, especially given his 2019-20 injury absence, outside of a brief stint with the Cavs G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, and perhaps a rookie draft pick wing, could be key beneficiaries of McKinnie’s defensive help, too.

I’d think McKinnie’s presence would hold considerably more weight from the Cleveland Cavaliers’ perspective also in terms of wing defense, with how Cedi Osman has struggled mightily in that realm the last two seasons. That could very well play into him being eventually unseated from that role down the road as well.

With McKinnie appearing to be an exemplary teammate, I’d think he can aid Windler in his defensive development.