Dylan Windler making progress toward return: Its going to be a good day when he gets back in there – cleveland.com

INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- As the Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up Wednesdays shootaround at Cleveland Clinic Courts, sidelined rookie Dylan Windler stayed a little longer to take part in some light spot-shooting work.

According to sources, Windler is progressing and has started to see more on-court activity recently.

Theres still no official word on Windlers return date. The Cavs are going to continue to be cautious. Windler was originally estimated to be sidelined 4-6 weeks because of a stress reaction in his left leg that caused him to miss all of training camp, the preseason and the first three games of 2019-20. The one-month mark just passed a few days ago. If the injury takes him all the way to six weeks then his debut would be Nov. 8 -- a night the Cavs are in the nations capital to play the Washington Wizards.

Head coach John Beilein admitted that hes already started envisioning Windler in his rotation.

A lot of it is involved with KP (Kevin Porter Jr.) and how hes playing," Beilein said. "Its going to be a good day when he gets back in there because we really can stretch the floor. Hes a low-maintenance player. He just moves the ball. That will be natural. What you saw the other day (versus Indiana), he will do that all the time. But, boy, does he give guys space.

Windler was the lone member of Clevelands 2019 draft class to play in summer league. Thats where he showed off his shooting prowess, which the Cavs raved about all off-season. According to sources, he had a great summer, buying into the development program immediately, getting stronger, eating right, constantly working on his shooting and putting himself in position to be Cedi Osmans primary backup at small forward before injury.

The 26th pick last June believes he pushed himself too hard without enough recovery time. Thats what led to the flareup. He learned from that and has been going about his rehab in a smart, patient way.

On Wednesday, Windlers first round of shooting came alongside trainer Steve Spiro, who rebounded and monitored Windler the whole time. After going through that without issue, Windler moved over to a different hoop, taking part in some drills with director of player development Mike Gerrity.

Get Cavs Insider texts in your phone from Chris Fedor: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with one of the NBAs best beat reporters -- just like you would with your friends. Its just $3.99 a month, which works out to about 13 cents a day. Learn more and sign up here.

Here is the original post:

Dylan Windler making progress toward return: Its going to be a good day when he gets back in there - cleveland.com