Cavs: One stud and one dud from loss to Warriors

Cavs dud: Dylan Windler

Since being drafted in the first round by the Cavaliers in 2019, there has always been a lot of upside and potential spoken about Dylan Windler. However, primarily due to injury, Windler has yet to be on the floor consistently.

Earlier this month, Windler scored 13 points against the Portland Trail Blazers, including hitting a trio of three-point shots. But, in the eight games since, Windler scored just 23 points and has not registered a point in the previous two games despite playing 30 minutes combined.

Especially with the Cavaliers played short-handed, players like Windler, who is on this team to score the basketball, need to step up. Probably the best way to describe Windler’s play in this most recent game is timid.

In 18 minutes of play, Windler took a total of one shot and had triple the amount of turnovers to register a minus-13 plus-minus for the evening.

To put it simply, if Windler is to have a consistent role on this team, he needs to step up in moments like these. It is excellent when he has one or two good shooting games in a row, but he needs to show consistency for him to be that true pure shooter.

Overall, it is hard to fault the Cavaliers for this game. Even with them blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead, they ran out of juice with an undermanned roster playing against the hottest team in the NBA.

Unfortunately, the Cavs schedule does not get any easier as they host the Brooklyn Nets and Phoenix Suns in their next two games.

But the remaining Cavaliers roster will have to step up and hold down the fort until the team can get back to full strength.