It appears that Dylan Windler‘s season will come to an early end, as the Cavaliers announced today in a press release that the young swingman has undergone surgery on his left knee to address “ongoing patella tendinopathy concerns.”
The Cavs’ announcement doesn’t explicitly state that Windler’s season is over. However, there are less than four weeks left until the regular season ends and he has been ruled out indefinitely, so it seems pretty unlikely that we’ll see him again before 2021/22.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events for Windler, who was also sidelined for his entire rookie year in 2019/20 due to a left leg injury and missed time earlier this season after suffering a fractured hand.
When he did play this year, Windler showed some promise. The 24-year-old, a first-round pick out of Belmont in 2019, averaged 5.2 points and 3.5 rebounds in 31 games (16.5 MPG), knocking down 33.8% of his three-point attempts.
After being limited to just 31 contests through his first two NBA seasons, Windler will look to have a healthier ’21/22 campaign. He’ll earn $2.24MM next season, with a decision on his $4.04MM team option for 2022/23 due this fall.
He did show a little promise but he is a 24 y/o rookie, he has been inconsistent on 3s, and his very poor defense has kept him off the court. His best skill is strangely his rebounding.
Next year, Windler’s job will be to bail out Altman.
Just bad luck with injuries. Was healthy in college. But he was never a starter and was never a 6/7th man. He’s was always gunna b a backend of the rotation guy. But one that was supposed to b able to shoot it. And he just hasn’t proven that he can shoot it enough to carve out a respectable role of a decent team.