Summer League Recap: Spurs 97, Cavs 89

Please welcome CLF for a (day late – my fault not his) summer league recap. 

Hello CtB!  Shout out to Nate for allowing me to bring you the NBA Summer League recap!  Cavs lose a competitive game against the Spurs, 97-89. Here’s your player rundown for the game:

Player of the game: Dylan Windler

This was as good of a debut Dylan Windler could’ve possibly had… in 29 minutes, he goes for a team-high 19 points (8-14 FGs, 3-8 3pt FGs), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals with only one turnover, along with a team-high +14 plus/minus.

Windler was clearly the best Cav on the court in my opinion.   He got buckets in a variety of ways, off standstill 3s, off the dribble, finishing off the glass around the rim.  His shooting stroke is absolutely pure. His best shot of the night coming in the 3rd quarter, with the shot clock running down, he nailed a 30 footer off the dribble that was positively Steph Curry-esque.

Windler didn’t only show a sweet jumper.  In my opinion, Windler knows how to play the game and his athleticism is good enough to belong in the NBA.  Windler showed savvy with timely cuts to the basket, making easy and contested layups. He showed off adequate, if not, down right good ball handling and an ability to see the floor and hit the open man with a timely pass.

Windler also showed off his basketball IQ with some great steals (and a near steal in transition).  One of his steals came off of help defense, with great anticipation. On his near steal, he jumped the passing in transition with perfect anticipation.  In another instance of great basketball IQ, he got himself an easy assist with a look-ahead pass in transition, catching Dean Wade for an easy dunk, exploiting the Spurs’ lazy transition defense.

So what are the shortcomings in Windler’s game?  Well, if I had to pick, there were two things at which Windler struggled.  First, Windler’s play strength isn’t the greatest. He struggled to finish at the rim thru contact on one shot attempt after a nice drive to the basket.  There was discussion from the broadcast team about his shoulder width, which IMO was a roundabout way to talk about his play strength. He’s going to need to get a little stronger, which should come with age.

The second struggle was Windler’s ability to find passing lanes off the pick and roll against NBA length.  There were two instances where Windler had an open roll man off the pick and roll, and both times was stymied by good defense where the defender used length and anticipation to block the pass, resulting in one turnover and one near-turnover.  The color analyst suggested that Windler probably should’ve gone with the bounce pass instead of trying to feed the roll man over the top. I think he just needs experience adjusting to the NBA game, since they were the right reads, just poor execution.

It’s hard not to be excited about Windler’s game.  He plays a fun brand of basketball and it looks like he can do it all: shoot, dribble, pass, move, and defend.

Honorable mentions:  Dean Wade and Marques Bolden

Dean Wade and Marques Bolden both had their moments tonight, in commendable NBA debuts.

For Wade, he showed an ability to hit shots at all three levels: at the rim, in the midrange, at the 3-point line.  Wade went for 14 points (6-13 FGs, 2-5 3pt FGs), 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals, and one block. While Wade is not the most athletic guy in my opinion, he showed some nice defensive chops and functional ball-handling and passing… his two most impressive plays were a sweet fadeaway off of a post touch and a nice steal and transition assist to Windler. I think that he justified himself as to why they signed him to a two-way contract just based on his ability to shoot and defend.

For Bolden, I have a soft-spot for him just as Duke fan.  But at the same time, there was a lot of hype for Bolden coming out of high school, and he never lived up to the hype at Duke.  That being said, Bolden showed how smart he is, playing great in his role as a defensive big and garbage man on offense. Bolden went for 10 points (5-5 FGs), 8 rebounds (4 offensive rebounds), 3 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks.

Bolden was hyperactive and showed bursts of activity, which is great because he’s not a quick player.  Bolden used his massive size to bully in the paint and showed a knack for the offensive rebound. Bolden also was perfect from the field, smartly and strongly dunking the ball whenever he had a chance, which was something he struggled with at times at Duke.  Bolden was also active on defense, playing smart positional defense and having a couple of highlight blocks. Keep it up Bolden, and let’s go Duke!!!

Best off the bench: Malik Newman

The Cavs’ bench was bad tonight, no way of getting around it.  But a bright spot off the bench was Malik Newman, the former Kansas Jayhawk.  I remember Newman from his Jayhawk days, he was a nice scorer and defender… his biggest performance was against my Blue Devils in the NCAA Tournament, where he dropped 32 points on Duke and bounced them out of the Elite Eight.

Tonight Newman showed off that shooting touch, going for an efficient 16 points (7-11 FGs, 2-5 3pt FGs).  His best shot came off of a Windler assist, draining a standstill 3. I like his athleticism and shooting ability, this will be a player to watch this summer to see if he can perform in a 3 and D type of capacity.

That’s the report from SLC Summer League, next up, Utah at 9pm EDT tomorrow!  GO CAVS!