Cavs: Dylan Windler needs to be getting more preseason reps

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Cleveland Cavaliers wing Dylan Windler looks to shoot on the interior. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /

I get that Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff wants the group to establish some real chemistry heading into the regular season, potentially in other preseason games to come. Cleveland has had two so far, which were on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In those, Cleveland was blown out at the Chicago Bulls, where they were obliterated, really, and on Wednesday, the Cavaliers got a close W at the Atlanta Hawks. It is preseason, so I can’t overreact to either, as the club has some new faces, but at the same time, the Hawks were without Trae Young, Clint Capela, Bogdan Bogdanovic and Danilo Gallinari.

In that outing, the Cavs went with a 10-man rotation, of which they are reportedly looking to implement in the regular season, per Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com, and Bickerstaff/the team challenged the group to respond, as Fedor noted.

It was a preseason contest, though, so I took it with a healthy grain of salt. Even so, it is a bit odd to me that Dylan Windler didn’t receive any minutes in that one, and Lamar Stevens has been getting in over him. And Cleveland playing Darius Garland, Collin Sexton and Ricky Rubio a bit, with Windler in mind, who I’d think could get some 2/3 minutes, was also odd.

Cavs: Windler needs to be getting more preseason reps to help get him in some of a rhythm heading into the regular season.

As has been well-documented, Windler has had injury woes in his first two seasons. His formal rookie season was wiped out entirely because of that, and last season, he was active in only 31 games.

Fortunately, Windler, whose season was cut short due to knee surgery in late April to address “ongoing tendinopathy concerns” then, is healthy and he was reportedly participating in voluntary scrimmaging even before training camp kicked off last week. If he can stay healthy, he could reportedly have a “prominent role” for Cleveland, too.

That’s nice to know, and hopefully he can get his opportunities in this upcoming season to provide a bench lift, but the limited preseason action has not led to optimism on that front.