Cavs: Dylan Windler has helped otherwise, but must keep firing amid woes

It was such an unfortunate occurrence that Dylan Windler fractured his left hand in the Cleveland Cavaliers‘ first game this season. Obviously, that was even more so because Windler did not play at all with the Cavs last regular season due to complications involving a stress reaction in his lower left leg.

Regarding his injury from earlier this season, Windler missed 13 games, albeit the last game was because of requirements affiliated with the league’s hardship exception/Yogi Ferrell having been waived.

On the plus side, it’s been nice for Windler himself, and for the Cavaliers, to have had him back, though. Windler has since appeared in Cleveland’s last nine games, in which he’s played in 17.5 minutes per outing off the bench at the 2 and 3, primarily.

It’s been somewhat of a mixed bag so far for him, which has been understandable, really.

So how has Windler helped the Cavs in his minutes, then?

In terms of a few key positives at this point involving that, those have been Windler’s defensive rebounding, his activity in the team sense defensively, and finishing/cutting feel, from my perspective.

Windler, who averaged 7.8 rebounds per contest in a four-year collegiate career at Belmont, has shown he has good positional awareness on the defensive glass, and has had 2.5 defensive rebounds per game in his minutes-share.

To paint more of a picture in that realm, though, he’s had a defensive rebounding rate of a fairly robust 14.4 percent and he’s started out averaging 5.7 defensive rebounds per-36 minutes, which is notable for a reserve wing.

To the above point from there on defense, while Windler is not a lockdown guy or anything, he’s done a decent job in a number of instances on-ball, albeit he’s more on the thinner side for a 6-foot-6 guy at 196 pounds.

But Windler’s activity as a team defender I believe has been a plus, and he’s gotten some impressive weak side and/or help side blocks as a result. That’s evidenced by him having 0.5 blocks per game thus far, and 1.2 per-36 minutes/a block rate of 3.0 percent, and Windler has gotten his hands in some passing lanes, too.

He’s had 0.7 steals per outing and has had 1.6 per-36 minutes, and again, regarding the active hands, in relation to deflections, he’s had 1.6 deflections per contest, per NBA.com’s player hustle data.

From there, on the offensive end, Windler’s finishing/cutting feel and/or touch has been what’s jumped out from the positive realm. Windler hasn’t had a ton of opportunities yet, clearly, but him converting on 10-of-12 attempts in the restricted area based mostly on his cutting awareness/timing, per NBA.com’s shooting data, has aided Cleveland.

And hopefully, we’ll see that sort of thing continue, with I’d hope more emphasis on man/ball movement for Cleveland, and I’d imagine he’d get more chances off of feeds from Darius Garland, Cedi Osman and Isaac Okoro, for instance.

Okay, so objectively, now we’ll move to the minus part, if you will, to this point for Windler.

The clear negative for Windler for the Cavs has been his perimeter shooting woes, more so of late, but he needs to keep firing.

In Windler’s last six games, he’s hit only 18.2 percent of his attempts from three-point range, which has played right into him currently having a 32.0 percent hit rate overall in 11 games active this season. By comparison, in Windler’s first four games back, he hit 50.0 percent of his three-point looks.

Anyway, point being, to me, while Windler, who has just played in 12 career games to this point, will have his ups and downs in minutes off the bench at the 2 and 3, the Cleveland Cavaliers need him to keep firing, and not be hesitant.

Although it hasn’t been the case a ton of the time, there’s admittedly still seemingly been instances when Windler has hesitated a bit in games, and perhaps some recent shooting woes have factored into that.

More from King James Gospel

• 3 possible starting lineups for Cleveland Cavaliers in 2023-24
• The Cavaliers may have snagged a hidden gem in Craig Porter Jr.
• 4 players the Cavaliers should pursue in 2024 free agency
• 6 players Cavaliers might replace Jarrett Allen with by the trade deadline
• This stat is one to keep an eye on for Cavaliers’ Max Strus in years ahead

Albeit with how Windler’s stroke is so pure, and with his ability to also knock down shots off of movement from deep and/or simply via spot-ups not even with much room from ball-swings, the Cavs need to keep stressing to Windler to just let shots fly.

I’m sure they have, but that can’t be emphasized enough, as this team needs to generate more three-point attempts moving forward, and Windler in his minutes-share hopefully will keep doing so at a high enough rate. And his per-36 minutes rate of 4.9 three-point attempts has been more than fine, anyhow.

Moreover, while the shots haven’t fallen from deep lately for Dylan, I firmly believe he’ll get it going in that realm soon enough. Kevin Love’s seemingly relatively soon return from a high grade right calf strain/reaggravation will hopefully aid in that realm, too.

And Larry Nance Jr., whose also a highly capable passer, like Love, being healthier (right wrist sprain) I’d imagine soon enough should as well. Nance was active on Saturday in a loss to Milwaukee, but will take some more time to be really his full self, one would think.

Plus, as we’ve seen some more of in the last two games, perhaps the Cavs will get Andre Drummond, even as a subject of trade rumors, to make more kick out passes/be more of a screener, too. That doesn’t seem so far-fetched, as he still appears fully bought-in.

So to drive it home, though, Dylan Windler’s helped in other ways, but even amid recent shooting woes, to a large degree at least, he needs to keep firing.