Dylan Cardwell isn't supposed to be here.
It's not just that he's still in the visiting locker room minutes before the team bus is scheduled to Madison Square Garden while the cleaning crew vacuums around us. It's not just that he stayed on the court with family long after other players had already showered and changed. It's more fundamental than that. Basketball players who average just 15 minutes per game in their college careers and go undrafted simply don't become key members of an NBA rotation. They don't help hold All-Star centers to one of their worst shooting performances of the year, but here Cardwell is, and the impossibility of it is not lost on him.
"None of this is promised, and it can be taken away like that," the 24-year-old says after a loss to the Knicks. "Philippians 4:11-12 says, 'I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.' That's kind of how my life has really been."
Growing up, Cardwell was a talented prospect and an imposing physical specimen, but he had to work for every opportunity. He was a ball boy at Peach Jam for three years before being able to play in the game. He transferred from Oak Hill Academy after his junior year of high school to play back home in Georgia at McEachern High School, only to be ruled ineligible by the Georgia High School Association. He had to sit out all year and hope to maintain his standing with colleges. Even when he got to Auburn, he was forced to earn his spot every season.
"After going to Auburn, I didn't play right away. Then I played 15 minutes the next year, 12 minutes the next year, 14 minutes the next year. I never played 20 minutes until my fifth year. I never started until my fifth year. For me, it just showed me that, at the end of the day, whenever I get to my Promised Land, whenever I get to my harvest, to rejoice in that and be glad in it."
Fortunately for him, finding joy in things has always been at the core of who Dylan Cardwell is. Even in college, people at Auburn knew him more for his personality than his athletic accolades.
“No one knew I was an athlete," he laughs."
In fact, Cardwell was more famous at Auburn for his "Chillin' With Dylan" social media videos or for repeatedly dancing shirtless on the Jumbotron at football games.
“I really enjoy playing jokes," Cardwell admitted. "It just reminds me that this is a child's game. At the end of the day, you can get lost in the mundaneness of it all. You can get lost in the highs and the lows. This is a game we used to play as kids, and, for me, it's never changed... When I'm having a good game or a bad game, I think this is something we used to play as kids. I'm living my childhood dreams.”
Living out that dream seemed incredibly unlikely a year ago.
Despite Cardwell being a leader on some of the best Auburn teams in school history, he averaged just 4.2 points and 3.9 rebounds in his five years of college (he was granted an extra year of eligibility due to the 2020-21 season being impacted by COVID). Even as a full-time starter in his senior year, he played just 20 minutes per game and averaged 5.0 points, 5.1 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks. He went undrafted before signing a two-way contract with the Kings in July.
Each NBA team can sign up to three players to a two-way contract, which allows them to split time between the NBA and the team's G League affiliate. Players earn 50% of the rookie minimum salary and can't appear in more than 50 games for an NBA team before they have to be signed to an NBA contract. Since the NBA introduced two-way contracts in 2017, there have been a few players who rose to be key members of a team's rotation (Austin Reaves, Duncan Robinson, Alex Caruso, Naz Reid, etc.), but it's a rare accomplishment.
This season, quite a few two-way players have emerged as key contributors for their NBA teams: Pat Spencer of the Warriors, Ryan Nembhard of the Mavericks, Spencer Jones of the Nuggets, Daniss Jenkins of the Pistons, Dominick Barlow of the 76ers, and Siddy Cissoko and Caleb Love of the Trail Blazers, to name a few. Almost all of those players have emerged due to injuries, but Cardwell has pushed through by sheer force of will.
“First of all, credit to our scouting department, Scotty P., and B.J. Armstrong, just identifying talent is huge," said Kings' head coach Doug Christie. "One thing about Dylan is he gives second efforts, multiple efforts, and that's a skill... When I played, playing hard was...you had to do it, or you didn't play. Today, it seems a little bit more like a skill. You can identify those guys [who play hard]. Dylan plays extremely hard."
While effort and physicality seem like a lost art in the NBA, they are at the core of what Dylan Cardwell brings onto the court. “Rebounding, energy, and defense," Cardwell said when I asked him what his specialty is as a player. "I can guard one through five at a high level, and I play with a high level of effort and energy.”
It's a sentiment Coach Christie echoed: "He has the ability to take a bump, and he keeps going. He's going to track the ball down. He tries to bat it, whether he gets it or not, and then he hustles back, whichever way we're going, offensively or defensively. That's just a special talent. The kid has an intensity about him, and it's just really great to coach him.”
That hustle and intensity didn't immediately earn Cardwell playing time. He appeared in just three games with the Kings before December, playing just 33 total minutes. Then, on December 18th, he got an opportunity against the Trail Blazers and grabbed seven rebounds and blocked three shots in 16 minutes in an overtime loss. Coach Christie gave him another shot two days later, and Cardwell snagged eight rebounds and blocked five shots in 21 minutes in another loss to the Trail Blazers. Then the chances just kept coming.
"I got blessed enough to come to a coaching staff that enjoys teaching," said Cardwell. "I'm a rookie, and so the game is really fast, but they're very gracious with me and allow me to make my mistakes. It gives me more confidence to go out there and apply what I learned. The thing Doug [Christie] and I talk about a lot is just stacking things and making sure that, each and every game, I'm intentional about progressing and being better than the last game.”
That progress has led to Cardwell becoming a fixture in the Kings' rotation. In January, he's averaging 20.5 minutes per game, while pulling down 8.5 rebounds and blocking 1.5 shots. That's almost three more rebounds per game than he averaged in college in the same amount of minutes per game.
“In college, I only averaged five [rebounds] my last year," explained Cardwell. "Before that, I averaged 3.8 over four years, and so I prayed a lot, and I really just locked in this summer and this whole fall on how I can become a better defensive rebounder. I was the best offensive rebounder in the country last year in rebounding percentage, but I didn't rebound the ball defensively because I was focused on checking out. So, for me, it took a lot of film and a lot of learning. 'How can I become a better defensive rebounder? How can I continue to grow as an offensive rebounder?' Took a lot of prayer, took a lot of really trying to understand the game and figure it out myself.”
While Cardwell was figuring himself out as a rebounder, he always knew who he was as a defender.
"I knew I was a great defender," he admitted, "but I didn't know it would translate this well. I told my wife, I knew I was all class, but I didn't know I had potential to be, if I play enough, I think of myself as a first-team all defender as a rookie."
He's not wrong either. Of all rookies who have appeared in at least 20 games this season, Cardwell ranks 8th in defensive rating. If we narrow that to players who have appeared in at least 20 games and also average at least 10 minutes per game, which gives us consistent contributors, Cardwell ranks 3rd in defensive rating behind only Hugo Gonzalez from the Celtics and Dylan Harper from the Spurs, who happened to be the 2nd overall pick in the draft.
Now, Cardwell hasn't been as impactful on the offensive end, but a lot of that is more due to opportunity than inefficiency. Among rookies who have appeared in at least 20 games, Cardwell ranks 2nd in rebounding rate, 3rd in just offensive rebounding rate, 9th in effective field goal rate, and 14th in Player Impact Estimate, which is the NBA's equivalent to Wins Above Replacement (WAR).
That performance alone could be enough to earn Cardwell a guaranteed contract, which is a reality that has certainly crossed his mind: “A big guy for me was Isaac Jones from last year's team. You know, talking to him a lot, he's been where I want to go, getting a contract converted. That gave me a lot of hope in knowing there's a light at the end of the tunnel."
But that hope has also come thanks to the success of his fellow two-way players this season.
"Seeing the guys being successful in the league is really, like, alright, whether it's this year, next year, or two years from now, my time is coming.”
How quickly that time comes for Cardwell is likely going to depend on how much growth he can show on the offensive end. Despite how well he ranks among rookies in rebounding and defensive metrics, Cardwell ranks second-to-last in usage with just a 9.7% usage rate. Only Brooks Barnhizer, who has averaged 7.4 minutes per game in 20 games for the Thunder, has a lower usage rate.
That's a part of his game that Cardwell knows he needs to turn his attention to.
“I really just want to learn. At the end of the day, I enjoy progressing...What I can improve is just looking at the basket on offense. I'm a very pass-first guy, but my teammates put me in good spots to look at the basket and to give us a chance.”
If Cardwell attacks his offensive growth with the same tenacity that he attacks a loose ball on the court, he might not only have his contract converted but also emerge as a potential starting option in the NBA. That might be years down the road, but if it ever materializes for Cardwell, the success will never overshadow the journey it took to get there.
"That pain and suffering and the process to get there has made this so much sweeter," Cardwell admitted. "Every game, that's what you see. I'm out there doing crazy emotions and all this stuff. That's me taking this all in. It's been really fun.”
So much fun that nobody is yet ready for the ride to end.
