Welcome Emoni Bates

[JJ_PR]

He reminds me of Perry Jones in a lot of ways. First, their styles are similar & they play the same position. Also, both fell in the draft for different reasons. Jones because of a bad back. They both had a lot of hype in their high school days.

The upside with this pick is very high.

 

[Alec]

Being young is good. But he won’t magically find length or explosion with getting older. I find he comps similarly to Travers.

Lacking length, short arms.
Played against bad competition.
Slight frame.
Relies on making tough contested shots that likely won’t be the case against NBA defenders.

 

[MirORich]

Being young is good. But he won’t magically find length or explosion with getting older.

Sure. He was miscast as a phenom because his length stood out when he was 15 or 16 relative to peers.

His success or failure will come down to learning to become nba level at shooting, decision making, playing for the team instead of for himself, and communicating(the basis for good team defense even amongst sub par athletes)

 

[RchfldCavRaised]

He’s a 6’9 Will the Thrill

Penny promised him the ball and a PNR partner in Duren in order to land him as a recruit. Bad decision on Bates part and probably the worst situation a 17 year old high school junior who reclassified could be thrown into under a inexperienced and negligent tactician of a coach.

When the kid got to Beale, the physicality of the game and the fact Penny coaches like JBB and didn’t make the game easy for him on offense at all, it all snowballed for one of the top 5 freshman really fast. Their first few games, the promise was there. They were playing Our Lady of the Elms but you could see the natural talent. They looked like Shaq and Penny on Blue Chips. Master elite recruiter in Penny (who just got suspended to start next season for recruiting violations btw) just roll the ball out there for talent and let them carry his lack of offense while he begs for effort on defense…


By the time they got past the cupcake schedule, and teams had tape of this 17 year old kid, 170 lbs soaking wet just running iso sets and HPNR with no structure to the offense at all, it was like giving red meat to sharks.

They trapped the shit out of him and Penny couldn’t go back on his promise to put the ball in his hands and feature him. So instead he just tried to get exotic in his full court pressing and half court traps to get Bates and Duren out in transition.

Didn’t work.

17 yr old kid struggled creating for others and himself in the half court against grown men with coaches who were coaching circles around Penny. Kid lost confidence and bowed out of some mid conference games citing back and core injuries.

Literally was a carbon copy of what happened to Ziaire Williams at Stanford but at least at Stanford they had some integrity with how they were coaching/developing/showcasing Ziaire.

Penny did the kid no favors.

He’s going to need to strengthen his core. He’s going to need to reel in his offensive game, just like Will the Thrill. It took him like 2-3 years up there in Portland in flashes and then he hit his stride as the primary creator off the bench for Denver.

If we did what Taylor Jenkins and Kleinman did with Williams in Memphis, that would be ideal. Follow it to a tee.

 

[Randolphkeys]

At least the Cavs drafted a player who can make shots. Bates is problem is his natural shot making skills and all the hype prevented him from ever working on any part of his game. Always hated his game since the mix tapes. At his level of conditioning and strength I'd be amazed if he was able to ever see an NBA court. Even on our team of zero wings

I think you bring a great perspective that I've agreed with leading up to the draft. I really didn't want Bates. He reminds me of a few highly touted AAU prospects I taught when they were in middle school - just coddled into thinking he's already a pro way too early. Coachability is knocked by plenty of draft sites as a minor concern. In this case, it's at the heart of all Bates's issues.

I'm not going to repeat positives to make this seem more optimistic. I'm approaching this with the knowledge that he's a stunted individual who may never repair that damage. Will the Cavs development coaches start fixing his stunted athleticism? It's possible. I also don't expect anything more than the Charge small forward.

 

[cabs]

Looks like a guard not a forward

 

[bigfoot5415]

RealGM Forums

RealGM Forums

forums.realgm.com

^ A lot of the same people on that board were predicting Mobley being an all-defensive player before anyone else (when he was in college).
FWIW.

Are you really citing realgm?

 

[NMCav]

Looks like a guard not a forward

He's a 6-9 SG because of his weight and small wingspan which is only 6-7. Will probably play SG and some SF in smaller lineups. At least that would make the most sense given his skillset and weird mixture of being tall but having TRex arms.

 

[Alec]

Are you really citing realgm?

The draft and player comparison boards are very good. Better than anyone here, sans 1-2 people.

RealGm *General*? That section is terrible.

 

[Randolphkeys]

He's a 6-9 SG because of his weight and small wingspan which is only 6-7. Will probably play SG and some SF in smaller lineups. At least that would make the most sense given his skillset and weird mixture of being tall but having TRex arms.

Measured: 6′ 8.25” barefoot, 8′ 9.00” standing reach, 179.2 lbs, 6′ 9.00” wingspan and a 32.5 inch maximum vertical at the 2023 NBA Draft Combine.

Draft Combine Anthrometric | Stats | NBA.com

NBA Draft Combine Anthrometric data

www.nba.com

His frame and ability to shoot with range are probably the only two things I like.

 

[NMCav]

Measured: 6′ 8.25” barefoot, 8′ 9.00” standing reach, 179.2 lbs, 6′ 9.00” wingspan and a 32.5 inch maximum vertical at the 2023 NBA Draft Combine.

Oh I saw a profile where it said his wing span was 6-7.25 I guess that was an older wingspan measurement. My bad.

 

[Randolphkeys]

Here is the Coach Spinella breakdown:



As usual, his work is tough but fair.

 

[benchplayer]

this guy has so much potential! why did he fall to the second round?

 

[JMoneyYourHoney]

Summer League will be interesting.

No it won’t.

 

[cabs]

What’s his spot up corner 3 like? The way for him to be an effective NBA player is to be similar to Michael Porter jr as a tall sniper who lacks on defense imo.

See how he goes in the g league