Cleveland Cavaliers: Dylan Windler is playing valuable minutes

As the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to play impressive ball, rookie Dylan Windler has looked to be a quality contributor.

After his rookie season scheduled was derailed by complications involving a stress reaction in his left leg that led him to miss the entire year, this 2020-21 campaign is his official rookie season. Not rushing Windler back was important, and the organization handled the situation to perfection.

That said, it was rough for Windler to previously have fractured his fourth metacarpal in his left hand in his first regular season game, and that has severely limited availability. Albeit a game last week he had to be sidelined due to hardship exception rules related to Cleveland previously waiving Yogi Ferrell.

In limited games and minutes so far this season for Windler, in which he’s been active in five overall, and has played 18.2 minutes per outing, he has made the most of those opportunities. Coming into the league, nobody really knew much of him other than the fact that he was a lengthy wing player that could shoot three-point shots.

Windler has been playing valuable minutes for the Cavs, and is providing more than just shooting.

On Wednesday, in particular, though, Windler played some valuable minutes, all while showing that he can do much more than just shoot.

While that was just Windler’s fifth NBA game of his young career, Windler had eight points on 50.0 percent shooting from both the field and three-point range. The most impressive part? The Cavs were an outstanding plus-29 when the Belmont product was on the floor, as pointed out by Cavs/Fox Sports Ohio play-by-play announcer John Michael.

Again, I did not expect to see this out of Windler, especially not this early in his career. Yes, it was against the Pistons. Regardless, a plus-29 plus-minus is outstanding, and it still does not take away from the fact that we learned Windler is a scrappy ball player that will be on the floor after every single loose ball and will get after it every time he is out on the floor, no matter the opponent.

A small sample size is a small sample size. The strong field goal percentage was not just a one game thing, as he is shooting 52.4 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from three so far in his five-game career. He looks to fit in seamlessly with players such as Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and others.

With the sad news of the exciting yet troubled Kevin Porter Jr. being dealt to the Houston Rockets essentially via dumping of salary due to maturity issues, the Cavs need Windler to work out in a much worse way.

That’s because if you want to admit it or not, having to trade away Porter Jr. slows the rebuild down a good bit, as the Cavs expected him to be a part of the long-term picture for some time before shipping him away.

If Windler keeps putting up plus 29 games when on the floor, he’s going to get more and more minutes. I am all for it, because I am ready to see just how legitimate Windler is, and his performance last week versus the Brooklyn Nets in a Friday W was encouraging, too.

Windler has clearly been impressive so far.