Cavs: Dylan Windler granted early access for rehab was big for him

The Cleveland Cavaliers will clearly benefit from Dylan Windler’s presence next season.

It was rough for Dylan Windler to have not been able to play during this now-past season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Windler was not active with Cleveland due to complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg, and outside of a few appearances with the Cavs G-League affiliate, the Canton Charge, Windler didn’t get in-game reps in.

On the plus side, Windler has been a full participant in the Cavs team workouts in their in-market bubble, which is a plus for him. Now, this is not Cleveland’s formal minicamp for ahead of next season, but at least being able to get some burn, albeit in a limit of one hour when 5-on-5 work does play out, is meaningful.

With next season in mind, though, to me, it’s evident that the Cavs should definitely benefit from Windler’s presence on the floor. It’s probably more likely that given him needing to time to get acclimated and with them wanting to ease him in more early on, anyhow, that Windler will seemingly be a bench contributor in what’s realistically going to be his rookie year.

The Cavs would seem to have a good chance of selecting a wing in the 2020 NBA Draft as well, such as perhaps Auburn’s Isaac Okoro or Florida State’s Devin Vassell, too. But either way, Windler should be a key contributor when he does get minutes for the Wine and Gold.

In any case, a recent bit of news came out on Saturday involving Windler, regarding his road back throughout what’s been essentially an extended break, factoring in how the Cavs were not an Orlando team, given novel coronavirus concerns.

Here’s what I’m referring to, from what Windler said to media, via Forbes‘ Evan Dammarell.

This bit of news was big for Windler, who appears primed to be an impact player for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Windler revealing that he got “special permission” from the NBA to access the Cavaliers practice facility a “month” before any Cavs player, via Dammarell, for rehab should pay off for him. It can’t hurt for Windler to have been granted early access to help him get healthier, and with him a participant in these team workouts, that would appear to have paid off for him.

Windler could end up being a sharpshooter for the Cavaliers early on, as KJG’s Grant Puskar recently demonstrated, with his ability to shoot off movement and of course, via spot-ups.

While I acknowledge it was not NBA competition, he did hit 40.6 percent of his 534 career three-point attempts in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont. That included him hitting 42.9 percent from downtown on 7.1 triple attempts per contest in his senior campaign in 2018-19 for the Bruins.

Windler is a polished pull-up threat and very instinctive cutter, and highly capable finisher with both hands as well, too, and could help ease the playmaking burden for Darius Garland and seemingly Collin Sexton/Kevin Porter Jr. to some degree, along with that.

But the key, clearly, is staying healthy for Dylan Windler, as us Cavs fans know at this juncture. That above tweet from Dammarell, though, was big for Windler, you would think. It’s really nice to have seen/heard that sort of thing for Dylan’s sake and being able to be as healthy as possible coming into next season.

Somewhat in that realm, Windler said that he, when asked for a “specific percentage”, via Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, feels at ’90-plus percent.'” But again, it’s really encouraging to know that Dylan was able to get in early, in relation to COVID-19 restrictions previously for players, as I’m sure that allowed him to keep progressing further in his recovery.

That’s even more so the case when you take into account what Larry Nance Jr. said about Windler and what he could bring, seemingly really early on even, for the Cleveland Cavaliers next season with his range/shooting touch. This was also via Dammarell, seemingly when asked about what Windler could bring to the club.

Windler, to reiterate, should make his presence felt for the Cavaliers in, I believe, a number of ways next season and coming years. The floor spacing element he should provide will clearly help pieces such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton, Kevin Porter Jr., Nance and others.

What will be paramount, again, though, is that hopefully, he’ll be able to be out there. I would imagine that should be the case, with how he didn’t miss a game at Belmont, however, and “was only sidelined for a few in high school because of a sprained ankle,” as Fedor pointed out.

Moreover, it would seem as if Windler should be just fine looking onward, and he should establish himself as an impact player.

Getting granted permission well before other Cavs to rehab I’m sure was big for him, at any rate; that was some really positive news/a quality development in regards to Windler’s outlook, from my perspective.