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Fresh out of the FIBA break, Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie issued import Dylan Windler a challenge: stop the same player that dropped an NBL record 51 points just a fortnight ago. Watch every game of every round this NBL Season LIVE on ESPN, via Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer. “You don’t just pick anyone for that job,” Rillie said, and of course there is no such thing as stopping Brisbane Bullets sharpshooter James Batemon. But you can limit his effectiveness. And Windler did just that, with Batemon going just 4-for-10 from the field to finish with just 10 points as the Wildcats cruised to a comfortable 117-89 home NBL victory. “What everyone is starting to see with Dylan is that he’s starting to understand the league,” Rillie added. “He’s getting healthy and you can see he’s a really good player, which is the reason he was a first-round draft pick.” But five years after being drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 26th overall pick, Windler finds himself out of the NBA after playing 101 games across four seasons. Why? Well, for the most part it was circumstances beyond his control — constant injury setbacks which cruelled an NBA career which Windler didn’t even see in his future until late in his teenage years. In fact, Windler didn’t have a single scholarship offer until after his junior year of high school when he played his first and only season of AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) travel basketball. In that sense, Windler’s route to the NBA — and now to the shores of Scarborough — was far from traditional and as much as he admits to going through some of “the toughest times” of his life when injured, he said those setbacks early in his career “made me the player I am today”. Foxsports.com.au recently spoke with Windler to reflect on his unlikely basketball rise that almost never was and how he has found his new home, at least for now, in Perth. ‘PHONE WAS BLOWING UP’: HOW WINDLER WENT FROM UNKNOWN TO IN-DEMAND Windler was “never” one of the kids who was playing AAU all summer, every summer. That meant, for the most part, he flew under the radar and, if it wasn’t for one tournament where by chance he got an opportunity to play in an expanded role, Windler may not even be here talking to foxsports.com.au from his condo he now lives in right across from Scarborough beach. But more than anything else, doors started to open for Windler when he got his first taste of the summer AAU circuit, which is particularly important in America for identifying top basketball prospects. Until then the scarcely-recruited Windler thought his future was on the links instead of the courts despite attending Perry Meridian High School in basketball-crazed Indianapolis. “I was playing a lot of golf tournaments in the summer so that kind of conflicted with basketball and I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do past high school, what I wanted to pursue,” Windler told foxsports.com.au . In fact, he had been looking towards a collegiate scholarship in golf instead of basketball after his freshman and sophomore years of high school. “I knew I wanted to play something in college and pursue something at the next level and just kind of see where it would take me,” Windler added. For so long, basketball didn’t look like it was going to take him that far. But then, after his junior year of high school when he was 17 years old, he finally made it onto the Indiana Elite AAU team. Although he didn’t start for the team and he wasn’t getting many minutes either, at least enough to make the kind of impression he needed to get the attention of scouts. But one weekend in July, that all changed when three of Indiana’s top players went to the Adidas Unrivaled camp in Chicago. Finally, Windler was about to get an extended look and at a local tournament too — the Spiece Run n’ Gun in Indianapolis. He played “lots of minutes” and Indiana ended up winning the tournament too. Before that weekend, Windler didn’t have any scholarship offers. By the end of it, his phone was “blowing up” and he had 10 to 15 Division I offers. “From that point on it was kind of written for me that basketball was going to be what I was going to do,” Windler said. Among those 10 to 15 Division I schools was Belmont. They were one of the first teams to reach out and followed Windler closely after the tournament too. He went on a visit and, in Windler’s own words, “it just felt right”. Although as straight-forward as the process may seem, it was anything but for Windler, who was forced to “grow up really fast”. “It was new to me,” Windler said. “I really hadn’t had a bunch of coaches calling me or I wasn’t getting recruited very heavily because I hadn’t really played AAU up until that point and in the States you kind of have to, that’s where all the coaches come and all the scouts and evaluators are at those AAU tournaments in the summer. “It all hit me really quick and you’ve got to grow up really fast. You’re taking calls from head coaches all over the country and they’re asking all types of questions and you’ve got to figure out what teams you want to visit with and it was a lot all happening in a very short period of time.” Only adding to the pressure was the fact Windler was so late in the process, with it being after his junior year. Essentially, he didn’t have much time to make a decision anyway given spots on rosters were already filling up by that point. “So, I went on that visit (to Belmont) and had to really narrow down my list pretty quick and within a couple of months,” added Windler. “It’s kind of a whirlwind looking back but I kind of just trusted my gut with Belmont after I made the visit and I could have visited 10 other schools but, like I said, I just kind of trusted my gut and it ended up working out.” All because of that one tournament in Indianapolis that put Windler on the path to become the first Belmont player taken in the NBA’s first round and just the second drafted in school history. “And now we’re in Australia but who knows without that tournament,” Windler said. “I had no offers up until that point so if I wasn’t given that opportunity I never really know where it could have taken me after that.” But of course, even if Windler finally knew which sport his future was in, that hardly meant anything was guaranteed — especially for a player who, by his own admission, has been on “a much different path” from the start. THE SUMMER STATEMENT THAT WAS WINDLER’S TURNING POINT There are some players who, even from a young age, always seemed destined for the NBA. Players like Wendell Carter Jr. who had a plan, as early as the third grade, of making it to basketball’s biggest stage or even someone like Michael Porter Jr. who, while later having the early stages of his career derailed by injuries, was heavily recruited by colleges before that. But Windler? “I was never really that kid,” the 28-year-old said. “I think a lot of guys in the NBA today, the elite basketball players, were kind of moulded to be a basketball player. You know, the day they came out of the womb, their parents raised them to be NBA players. “I had a much different path.” Windler did enjoy playing basketball, but he enjoyed playing sports full stop. In fact, his parents put him in “pretty much every sport you can think of” as a kid. He played organised soccer, basketball, golf, football, baseball. Even in high school he tried volleyball. It meant that while Windler didn’t necessarily specialise in one sport, at least early on, he did quickly become a really well-rounded athlete. “I can pretty much pick up anything really fast,” Windler said. “I think all those sports that I played growing up helped me to be a better basketball player. I never had jump off the paper athleticism or anything. I was never able to jump out of the gym or dunk when I was 12 years old or anything like that. “I kind of just slowly developed the game over time by putting in a lot of work. And, you know, once I decided that basketball was going to be what I wanted to do, I really just kind of got obsessed with it and my competitive nature kind of took over.” But in his first few years at Belmont, Windler wasn’t really able to show that competitive nature or, at least, he was only able to unleash it in small spurts. As a freshman he was just an energy guy coming off the bench, playing 10 minutes or so, not doing much. By the end of his sophomore year Windler had earned more minutes, headlined by a 21-point and nine-rebound game against Georgia in Postseason NIT, but he was still left feeling he had plenty more to give. A series of strong games to close out the year only furthered that point and while the Bruins didn’t end up making the NCAA tournament, Windler said that period was where “it all turned” for him. Although it was as much about what Windler did in the summer of his junior season, when he and his teammates were only obligated to show up for around one month of their time off. But Windler stuck around for pretty much the whole summer. “I didn’t go home much at all,” he said. “I kind of just wanted to get even more familiarised with everything we’re doing in the program and just wanted to be around the coaches and staff as much as I could. “So I pretty much stayed there the entire summer between my sophomore and junior year and just grinded. I got really close with the weight staff and was always doing extra strength and conditioning work and then just making sure I wasn’t missing workouts in the gym.” It showed on the court. Windler went from averaging 9.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in his sophomore season to 17.3 and 9.3 as a junior before taking his game to another level in his final year at Belmont, averaging 21.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 1.4 steals — all career-high numbers. That senior campaign included one game against Austin Peay where Windler scored 20 straight points in seven minutes to put the Bruins on his back, inspiring a 96-92 win. Although reflecting on that game nearly six years later, Windler said he “didn’t even realise it in the moment”. “I had absolutely no idea,” he laughed. “I just thought we kind of made a run as a team.” By the end of his junior year Windler had started to generate some NBA interest. Scouts were in the building. Suddenly, it was all starting to get real and when Adam Silver called out his name with the 26th pick of the 2019 draft, it was official. Dylan Windler was an NBA player. What followed was a dream come true and then, not long after, “one of the toughest times” in Windler’s life. OVERCOMING DARK DAYS... AND THE AUSSIE IN HIS CORNER Just a few weeks earlier Windler had been Cleveland’s headline act at Summer League, the only one of the Cavaliers’ three first-round picks to play in the NBA’s pre-season tournament. He had posed for photos, proudly standing with his new jersey — the No. 9 and Windler stitched on the back — alongside lifelong friend Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr. Windler was officially an NBA player. Everything was going to plan — until it wasn’t. Until a lower leg stress fracture that had developed through the pre-draft process became too much, forcing Windler to undergo surgery. “They put the rod in my leg and tibia, I have a few screws and hardware in there,” Windler explained. “Then the world shut down shortly after with COVID and kind of put a halt to my rehab and everything.” Windler described it as “definitely one of the toughest times I faced in my life”. “Not only as an athlete, but just anything in general,” he added. He eventually made his NBA debut in December 2020 but just nine minutes into that game Windler fell hard, fracturing his hand. Another month on the sidelines followed. So, Windler worked his way back again until he started to find his feet and then made nine-straight 3-pointers in two games. Everything was coming together — again, until it wasn’t. Windler had played through pain in his left knee and by that point late in his second season it had all become too much and he needed a second consecutive season-ending surgery. “I had to get a follow up clean up on my knee from where they cut through and put the rod in,” Windler said, with his second season in the NBA now cut 27 games short. “Physically it was tough, rehab and all of that trying to get back and play basketball at a high level... but mentally it was the hardest part for me. “I’ve never really been through any type of injuries growing up in my life before that, never had any surgeries. Putting that together with being a rookie in the NBA and trying to prove yourself and being limited physically, it was really tough for me mentally trying to get over that. “I obviously wanted to be the best player I can be and I had that competitive nature and wanted to get that respect and it’s tough battling through those injuries and trying to rehab it.” Teammates could offer their support, although very few could actually understand what Windler was going through — having the start to his NBA career derailed by circumstances beyond his control. That is, except for Australian Danté Exum, who missed his entire sophomore season after suffering an ACL tear before a string of injuries hampered the former No. 5 overall pick’s development from that point. “I actually got to be really good friends, even to this day, staying in pretty good contact with Danté,” Windler said. “We created a pretty good relationship over that time he was in Cleveland. We still stay in contact today playing video games or whatever. He was definitely somebody I could talk to going through all that process. “Obviously, he had been through stuff similar in the past and early on in his NBA career, he had to deal with injuries and expectations. He was definitely somebody that was super helpful for me throughout my process.” And as hard as those early seasons in Windler’s career were, he said that ultimately it is what “made me the player I am today”. The same goes for his years spent grinding away in the G League. Windler was assigned to the Cleveland Charge six times in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons before signing with New York the following year, where he played for its G League affiliate the Westchester Knicks, breaking the all-time record for rebounds (33) in one game. Last season he signed with the Lakers, playing eight games in the NBA and three for the South Bay Lakers in the G League before being waived in March. A few days later he was offered a two-way contract by the Atlanta Hawks, playing six games to close out the season before eventually finding his way to the NBL and the Perth Wildcats. Even if Windler was finally healthy, those years spent bouncing around from team to team, in and out of the NBA, were a different kind of challenge. It forced Windler to go back to his roots and “find that love for the game again”. “I’d say going back to high school, or even middle school, was the last time I played in front of the amount of fans that go to those games,” Windler said. “It’s definitely a big step back when you go from playing competitive basketball at a Division 1 level and obviously in the NBA. “When you’re going into games and you’re playing in front of a couple hundred people and the brutal travel schedules that comes along with that, a lot of lower end facilities, you’re taking a big step back in a lot of areas playing in the G League. “... You’ve got to be able to look past it and over to the other side. The G League is not a place you want to be your whole career but it can be that stepping stone to get in a lot of better situations. “So you’ve kind of got to look at it from a business perspective and just grind and use it to propel yourself forward and end up in better situations.” Like the NBL and Wildcats. HOW WINDLER WAS RECRUITED... AND FINDING A NEW HOME IN PERTH Windler has been loving his new life in Perth. He was staying in a rental apartment that the Wildcats provided him with for the first month or so before finding another space, a little condo in a “great spot” right across the beach. It is a very different lifestyle to the one during his time in Cleveland too. Windler isn’t immediately heading straight home after practice sessions to escape the cold like he used to. Instead, it is all sunshine, beaches and golf courses, with a particularly nice one right near the Wildcats training facility, which Windler often goes to with teammates Ben Henshall, Hyrum Harris, Keanu Pinder and Michael Harris. “The pace is a little bit more relaxed and slower, especially living right on the beach,” Windler said. But there is nothing relaxed or slow about the pace the Wildcats play at, with Windler getting an early glimpse of what his new life would be like playing with Bryce Cotton at HoopsFest. “Obviously I knew he’d been a MVP multiple times in this league and an elite scorer averaging over 20 pretty much every season he’s been here,” Windler said. “But to see it right off the bat in that first game and especially behind such an electric crowd that we have at RAC was definitely a great way to start my career here.” It was just an early taste of what was to come too, with Cotton scoring a modern NBL record 59 points on the weekend in Perth’s 123-112 win over the New Zealand Breakers. Windler, meanwhile, started to look more comfortable before the FIBA break and carried that momentum into his first two games since the league resumed, scoring a combined 30 points. The Wildcats spent months looking to secure the former NBA first-round pick, with Windler eventually signing on to what ended up being Perth’s final roster spot for the 2024-25 season. Wildcats general manager Danny Mills had been familiar with Windler’s game for a long time, having watched plenty of the versatile wing at Belmont while he was Director of Scouting at the Philadelphia 76ers. Mills, who was appointed to the general manager role at Perth in 2021, knew Windler’s two-way eligibility was running out ahead of this year’s Summer League. In other words, he knew the former first-round NBA pick would have to look overseas if he wasn’t offered a guaranteed contract. So, the Wildcats started speaking with Windler’s representatives and stayed in touch for the following month trying to recruit him. Mills certainly knew what Perth had in Windler, but what was their selling point? “I think it was just the stability of coming down here knowing you’ve got a really good coaching staff and medical performance team that can make sure he’s 100 per cent healthy to have a consistent season and not be disrupted by injuries and would give him the time to do that,” Mills told foxsports.com.au . “We’re a shorter season, it’s an easier adjustment coming to a city like Perth from the US as opposed to maybe going to Europe and having to go into a cold, Northern Hemisphere winter and 10-month season and two-a-day practices, which may not have been the best transition for him right away. “So for us, we felt like it was a perfect situation.” Windler, meanwhile, said he knew from speaking with Exum and Melbourne United’s Ian Clark that the NBL was a “competitive” league and, most importantly, that it could be his ticket back to the NBA. “I know NBA scouts and everybody look at this league with high respect and praise and I know it’s a league that if you perform well people are always watching,” Windler said. “It’s definitely a league that people can get called up back to the NBA from as we’ve seen before. I think it’s up there with the Euro League and the elite leagues over in Europe, so I just knew it was going to be a good enough league and good enough competition that’s respected by the NBA that if I play well, I’ll get looks to come back.” He is definitely playing well as of late. Beyond that lockdown effort against Batemon, Windler also averaged 11.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game in November. Although according to Mills, a lot of what Windler does well isn’t necessarily reflected in the box score. “He’s just a really smart, cerebral player,” Mills said. “He’s a really good off-ball cutter and then he’s a really disruptive defender and can rebound the ball at an elite level from the wing position, so he kind of fills a lot of the areas we were looking for in a recruit and filling some of the gaps we were looking to address from last year’s team.” And that is just the impact Windler has on the court. Off it, he is also proving a valuable sounding board for Perth’s younger players. Again, as much as Windler would love to be able to reset his career and start over again, he can’t. And even if he did, he wouldn’t be the player and person he is today. Because as testing as those early years may have been, there were plenty of lessons learned along the way and even if Windler may not be in the NBA for now, no one has forgotten who he once was, who he is and who he can still become. “There’s a level of respect everyone has for Dylan when he walks in the room,” added Mills. “His resume speaks for itself. Just the way he approaches the day-to-day, he’s a great teammate but also very approachable for the young guys. “There’s definitely leadership qualities within him. He had that when he was in Belmont his last two years and I think as he’s got more comfortable here he’s starting to realise he can really have an impact in this league.” Watch every game of every round this NBL Season LIVE on ESPN, via Kayo. New to Kayo? Get your first month for just $1. Limited time offer.The Reds took the lead when Mac Allister played a one-two with Conor Bradley and slotted past Thibaut Courtois seven minutes into the second half. Real had the chance to equalise with a penalty just past the hour, but Kylian Mbappe saw his strike saved by Caoimhin Kelleher. There was then an unsuccessful spot-kick from the hosts as Mohamed Salah missed from 12 yards, before Gakpo popped up with a 76th-minute header from Andy Robertson’s cross as the Merseysiders recorded a first win over Real in 15 years and gained some revenge for their defeats in the 2018 and 2022 finals. While Liverpool top the table, Carlo Ancelotti’s Real are down in 24th place – the final play-offs berth – with just six points from their five matches. Aston Villa are outside the top eight on goal difference after a 0-0 draw with Juventus in which Morgan Rogers had a stoppage-time finish for the hosts ruled out for a foul, with Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez having earlier made a fantastic save to deny Francisco Conceicao. Celtic, lying 20th, drew 1-1 at home with Club Brugge thanks to a curling Daizen Maeda strike that cancelled out a remarkable own goal by Cameron Carter-Vickers, who passed back without looking to send the ball into the net. Borussia Dortmund moved into the top eight with 3-0 win at Dinamo Zagreb, where Jamie Gittens, Ramy Bensebaini and Serhou Guirassy got on the scoresheet. Monaco dropped to eighth after suffering their first loss of the league phase, 3-2 at home to Benfica. Despite having Wilfried Singo sent off just prior to the hour mark, the French side took the lead for a second time via Soungoutou Magassa in the 67th minute, only for late goals from Arthur Cabral and Zeki Amdouni to give Benfica all three points. Lille, in 12th, have the same amount of points as Monaco and Villa thanks to a 2-1 win at Bologna, with Ngal’Ayel Mukau notching a brace. PSV Eindhoven, now 18th, produced a dramatic late turnaround to beat 10-man Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2 at home. The visitors led 2-0 through Danylo Sikan and Oleksandr Zubkov before having Pedrinho sent off in the 69th minute, and PSV then hit back with three goals in the closing stages, Malik Tilman scoring in the 87th and 90th and Ricardo Pepi then notching the winner in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Red Star Belgrade registered their first win of the league phase by thrashing Stuttgart 5-1, as did Sturm Graz, beating Girona 1-0.

The Independent Planning Commission will not hold a public meeting as part of its review of the contentious 505 Minmi Road development proposal at Fletcher. Login or signup to continue reading The move has sparked an outcry from surrounding residents seeking to vent their concern about the project's potential adverse impacts on native habitat and local traffic among other issues. If built, about 180 homes would be built on the 26 hectare site. The matter was referred to the commission in August after the D epartment of Planning granted a City of Newcastle request to discontinue the planning assessment process for development proposal. It followed an Environment Protection Authority submission relating to the impact of odours, gases and air emissions generated from the Summerhill Waste Management Centre. The commission held a stakeholder meeting with project's proponents and the City of Newcastle earlier this month. It was not required to hold a public meeting due to the nature of the advice request from the department. It is due to provide its advice to the Department of Planning about the project's future within the next fortnight. Even though the houses in proposed development would be further from the waste cell than some existing homes, the proponent has been requested to conduct a 12 month study into how 505 Minmi Rd could be affected. Planning consultant Stephen Barr previously said he was concerned about a lack of consistency in the application of planning assessment for the 505 Minmi Road project and those surrounding it. He highlighted the fact that an equivalent request was not made of the developers of the adjacent Minmi Estate development that was approved earlier this year. "But I think it (the EPA request) also raises the question of if we're being impacted by the emissions or the environmental matters as a result of the waste management facility then there's obviously land a lot closer which is being impacted too." Mr Barr also raised concern about the council's dual role in managing the waste facility while also providing advice to the department about the future use of surrounding land. "You have got a situation where one part of the organisation is endorsing the need for more studies to look at the impact of the waste facility and the other part is saying the waste facility is fine," he said. The site has been the subject of a decades long tug of war between its owner Peter Durbin and the Green Corridor Coalition that wants it incorporated into a continuous corridor stretching from the Watagans nation Park to Stockton Bight. "There is only one corridor site left in the area not zoned for housing and that is 505 Minmi Road, Fletcher," Coalition spokesman Brian Purdue said previously. "Green Corridor Coalition again calls for this to be purchased for the National Parks Estate and then, along with the lands to Mt. Sugarloaf, fully protected by state parliament legislation, which is not presently protected." Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues. Matthew Kelly has worked as a journalist for more than 25 years. He has been working as a general reporter at the Newcastle Herald since 2018. In recent years he has reported on subjects including environment, energy, water security, manufacturing and higher education. He has previously covered issues including the health and environmental impacts of uncovered coal wagons in the Hunter Valley, the pollution of legacy of former industrial sites and freedom of information issues. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Get the latest property and development news here. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. WEEKLY Follow the Newcastle Knights in the NRL? Don't miss your weekly Knights update. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily!NoneMysterious googly eyes go viral after appearing on public art in Oregon

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