Cavs’ Windler is healthy, but we’ll have to wait and see on his outlook

The Cleveland Cavaliers started training camp last week, and the 2022-23 season is approaching fast, with preseason action beginning at the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday.

Looking onward, the core for the Cavaliers looks to be the quartet of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. Those are the four pillars that Cleveland will be building around in years to come, and that’s safe to say.

As a side note, Mobley is expected to be out for 1-2 weeks with an ankle sprain, but he should seemingly be back for the regular season opener on Oct. 19. The injury isn’t too concerning, it’s just a slight blow to chemistry-building chances.

As for the fifth starter for the Cavs, it’s a battle that Cleveland has to figure out in training camp and in the preseason.

Although there’s reportedly not a frontrunner at the moment, Isaac Okoro and Caris LeVert would appear to have a high chance at landing the starting 3 role. Even still, Dean Wade, Cedi Osman, Lamar Stevens and Dylan Windler are all in the running, too.

I’d lean Wade, and might be okay with Stevens; I’m not J.B. Bickerstaff or on the Cavaliers coaching staff, is the thing.

As for a guy that could possibly be a factor in the wing outlook that we mentioned, it is a plus that Windler, who has had his injury hardships with the Cavaliers, is fully healthy.

Windler was healthy for the most part it seemed last season, but he’s had his share of injury issues in his three seasons with the Cavs, including his rookie year being wiped out because of complications related to a stress reaction in his leg. He has shown flashes in his two seasons since, particularly in his de facto rookie year in 2020-21, on a positive note, although even in that campaign, he was active only active in 31 games.

Fortunately, as we hinted at, Windler is fully healthy in camp and hopefully will be heading into the regular season, and as he stated in recent media availability, he’s back “to his normal self,” via Evan Dammarell of Fear The Sword and Right Down Euclid. As Dammarell from there added, Windler emphasized how this is the best he’s felt physically since his senior year at Belmont.

Windler is feeling healthy, which is great. That said, Cavs fans should have a wait-and-see approach when it comes to his outlook.

Injuries have been front and center with Windler in his time with the Cavaliers, unfortunately, and that didn’t allow him to establish much of a rhythm through his first two seasons.

Last season, he was mostly available, however, when the opportunities did come in the season’s early going, he didn’t look that confident as a rotational shooter. And while there were chances in the closing stretch of the year for him, the shooting wasn’t there much, either.

In 2021-22, Windler was not a rotational fixture, and spent his share of time playing with the Cleveland Charge, the Cavaliers G League affiliate team. There, he did some good things, and feasibly had to have gotten in some rhythm with those appearances.

For a player that was a first-round pick back in 2019, though, that wasn’t exactly encouraging for what was formally his third season with the Cavaliers. Last season, in 50 appearances with the Cavs, Windler shot only 30.0 percent from three, on 1.4 attempts per game, in which he averaged 9.2 minutes per appearance. He had 2.2 points per game with the Cavaliers then.

The season prior, there were more positive flashes involving Windler, it was just tough for him to consistently establish a shooting rhythm as the season wore on, and knee soreness didn’t help. Regardless, in 2020-21, he did have 5.2 points per outing in 16.5 minutes per appearance, and did benefit from more opportunities, shooting 33.8 percent from three on 2.5 attempts per game.

All things considered, it’s great that Dylan is the healthiest he’s felt since his Belmont days, and he’s reportedly looked great since returning to Cleveland early last month. And coming out, he had the potential to be a knockdown catch-and-shoot guy that can fill it up off movement, too, for Cleveland.

The team clearly still has belief in him it seems, and defensively, he really seems to do a nice job when his number is called in games. His length there helps him, and his attention to detail off-ball makes him an impact player on that end for stretches.

Along with that, Windler is a hell of a rebounder for a player that is realistically, on the slender side at 196 pounds at 6-foot-6. For his career thus far, he’s had a robust 7.3 rebounds per-36 minutes, and his career rebounding percentage has been 17.8 percent.

However, the key with Windler is can he stay healthy enough, and if and when the chances do come, does he pull the trigger from deep? And can he knock down looks the way many thought he could coming out of Belmont for the Cavs in his minutes, if those are there?

Needless to say, I have my reservations.

Windler, who recently turned 26, is a player set to enter the last year of his rookie deal, and it’s difficult to envision him being a long-term piece for Cleveland.

But, maybe he is, and turns out to be what many, including myself, envisioned for him coming out of college. It’s just hard to have much, if any, conviction about that heading into the season.

How Windler does in the preseason is a storyline to watch, anyways. And my fingers are crossed that he remains healthy.