Heading into this season, it’s safe to say that Dylan Windler needs to prove himself for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Simply put, we haven’t seen Windler in action enough to truly know what Cleveland has with him in rotational minutes.
He missed all of his rookie campaign in 2019-20 because of a stress fracture in his lower left leg, and in his de facto rookie year in 2020-21, he was active in just 31 games. It was a condensed/COVID-19-affected season, sure, but Windler couldn’t stay available then often enough, either.
His last year was ultimately cut short due to injury as well, as he had surgery in late April to address “ongoing tendinopathy concerns” in his left knee.