The Cleveland Cavaliers had to wait a bit before making their first pick, but when it was time they went with a bold choice in Emoni Bates.
Bates was highly touted coming out of high school, but was not terribly impressive at Memphis. In need of an obvious change of scenery, Bates moved closer to home by transferring to Eastern Michigan. Bates did see his numbers improve across the board, which is encouraging, but there are still some concerns about him as a player that could limit his potential for the Cavs.
Emoni Bates is a player who is not terribly athletic in addition to having a less than optimal wingspan, making poor shots choices, and disappearing from games. While clearly a project for Cleveland, there is a lot of work that needs to be done if Bates is going to develop into a rotation player for the Cavaliers.
Taking Emoni Bates at 49 may be worth it
In the grand scheme of things this is the type of gamble to take in the second round. The NBA Draft, like most drafts is very much hit or miss. The chances that a player ends up as a miss increases as the draft progresses. Cleveland taking a chance on Bates is perfectly fine. Although it would be wise to pump the brakes on expecting any sort of immediate impact.
A few years ago, Bates would see a good number of minutes on a nightly basis. But with the Cavs having aspirations of deep postseason runs and looking for instant improvements, Bates may not see much court time, if at all. An extended stint in the G-League may be necessary to work on a few things and gain meaningful experience.
It is about the long play when it comes to Emoni Bates. Hope that he improves and display the traits that made him so highly regarded coming out of high school. If not, Bates would end up in the group of several other draft picks that did work out for Cleveland.
