Cavs: Collin Sexton, Dylan Windler would probably be all for Dec. 22 NBA start

The next NBA season could start in late December, and a few Cleveland Cavaliers youngsters, in particular, would probably be all for it.

According to a Friday report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst, with contributions from their own Tim McMahon and Zach Lowe, the NBA and NBPA are discussing an earlier start date to next season. Per that report, a start date of Dec. 22 has been proposed/is being discussed, and the proposal also notes that the next season would be trimmed a bit to 72 games.

As far as other reported details about the next season’s potential start/other aspects, you can view those here.

That date, which of course has not been finalized, would be earlier than expected previously, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver before stated in an interview with Citizen CNN that his “best guess” for next season’s start would be January at the earliest.

Yahoo! Sports’ Vincent Goodwill recently reported on Wednesday that Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 18) was what the league was “focusing” on, but that a Christmas Day (Dec. 25) start could be in-play, for comparison. So we’ll see on the Dec. 22 proposal.

If this proposal were to be agreed upon, though, it’d probably be just fine with youngsters on the Cleveland Cavaliers, in particular. The Cavs have not played in game action since March 10, in what was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls.

From there, the 2019-20 NBA season went into a novel coronavirus-induced hiatus, and from there, the Cavaliers season was done with them not being a team invited to the season resumption in the Orlando area.

It was a positive for the Cavs to have their own voluntary in-market bubble team workouts, of which most attended, but I’m sure the young guys, especially, and for the team/their development, want to get next season started.

In that realm, though, two Cavs players, perhaps even more so, I would imagine would love an earlier start to the 2020-21 season than was seemingly set to be the case. And those two that immediately come to mind are Collin Sexton and Dylan Windler.

Young Cavs Sexton and Windler would probably love that proposed NBA start.

In Sexton’s case, he was on quite a tear leading into the hiatus/ultimately the end of 2019-20 for Cleveland.

Sexton, who led Cleveland in scoring last season with 20.8 points per game, also had 23.6 points per contest on 49.2 percent shooting. That included him hitting 44.9 percent of his 4.9 three-point attempts, too.

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Clearly, looking at next season, Sexton is going to be the Cavs’ primary option, and with how closed out last campaign, and with Sexton being all about basketball/having a truly rare work ethic, I’m sure he’s been chomping at the bit.

And Sexton gaining 10-15 pounds of good weight over what’s been an extended offseason should only aid him in his overall development/as a finisher in 2020-21.

As was noted above, too, though, this proposed start date, which was earlier than thought before, I’d imagine Windler would probably love that as well.

Windler didn’t play for the Cavs in game action last season due to what was eventually deemed a stress fracture in his lower left leg, and that was obviously really rough for him and the Cavs.

Fortunately, Windler was a full participant in the Cavaliers voluntary team workouts last month, and he seemingly made quite a splash.

Given that, I’d think Windler should be fully ready to roll at the start of next season, and he should be at that proposed Dec. 22 start date. As a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, his all-around shooting ability is something I’m really excited to see on display, too.

It’s tough to say if Windler could eventually be a starting 3 next season, but his shooting in a key bench role should definitely help the Cavs in his minutes-share.

Windler hit 40.6 percent of his 534 career three-point attempts in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont, and that included him hitting 42.9 percent of his 7.1 triple attempts per game as a senior. Windler’s finishing should make a difference when he’s out there as well, though, as should his feel as a secondary playmaker.

So while I’m not saying other Cavs players such as Darius Garland, Kevin Love and Kevin Porter Jr.,  wouldn’t be pumped about getting in game action perhaps earlier than maybe expected, to me, Sexton, whose all about basketball, and Windler especially come to mind.

Some rust for Windler, and Cleveland’s 2020 draft selection, for example, would be more than understandable in the early going, though.