The Cleveland Cavaliers suffered a brutal loss Friday night to the Los Angeles Lakers. They were leading, or playing with the Lakers until late in the fourth quarter when LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook and company put the Cavs away for good. Isaac Okoro was still sidelined with a hamstring injury, and Dylan Windler got a couple minutes in garbage time. The Cavs were led by Evan Mobley and Darius Garland, who had a double-double with 18 points and 11 assists.
On the subject of Garland, Okoro and Windler, though, the Cavaliers had decisions to make involving their team options for next season, even while for the first two, it seemed pretty certain what they’d end up doing.
To that point, per an annoucement from Cleveland general manager Koby Altman/a team press release, the Cavs picked up Windler and Garland’s fourth-year options, while Okoro’s third-year option was picked up as well.
OFFICIAL: #Cavs exercise contract options on Darius Garland, Dylan Windler and Isaac Okoro.
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 30, 2021
Okoro and Garland’s options were no-brainers for the Cavs front office, but Windler may have been a bit of a tricky decision.
Windler, who has only played just under five minutes total this season, has had trouble staying on the court for the Cavaliers, to say the least. The 2019 first-round draft pick is often injured, as evidenced by him having only played 31 total games through his first two seasons coming into 2021-22, with the first year being wiped out entirely.
Windler did come into the preseason reportedly fully healthy, and seemed to be mentally and physically in a great place at the beginning of training camp, which was encouraging, but it’s been a struggle for him even this season. He injured his hip and was not active for the first three games of his now-Year 3.
That, and the fact that even when he’s healthy he is only seeing garbage minutes, are enough reasons to understand that picking up his option wasn’t as simply as it might’ve looked initially.
And with the idea of re-signing Collin Sexton potentially on Altman’s mind, he could have opted to save money, and not pick up Windler’s option.
In the end, I think a lot of fans just feel bad for Windler. He was a promising pick in 2019, but just hasn’t been able to stay on the court. He was a great shooter in college at Belmont, and that’s a skill that translates to the NBA very well, so I think it’s good to remain hopeful.
However, I think Windler needs to impress a lot of people this season. It is, without a doubt, a huge year for him.