If an NBA fan four years ago was told that they landed Emoni Bates, they’d posit that their team got the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft. This was not the case when the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired the young gun. Nonetheless, JB Bickerstaff has a lot of plans in store for the rookie in his system. Even Cavs star Darius Garland knows that there is a high ceiling for his teammate, via Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com.
“Emoni is a special talent,” was the most concise collection of words JB Bickerstaff used to describe Emoni Bates.
The Cavs coach went into further detail on the aspects of Bates’ style of play that stand out, “People shortchange how high his basketball IQ is as a playmaker. Everybody always talks about his ability to score and create shots. But, he sees the floor extremely well and he makes the right play most of the time. He has done a great job.”
This was in full display when the rookie had to deal with the Atlanta Hawks. He notched 10 points and two rebounds on 14 minutes of playing time. He was not holding the ball too much and made it rotate among his teammates on offense. Darius Garland has noticed this since Bates joined them. He outlined how lethal of an offensive weapon Bates is.
“He can really shoot it. didn’t know he could shoot it like that,” the Cavs guard said about their new brother in the team system.
Even before the 2023 NBA Draft, Bates had the ability to heat up but remain efficient. He proved this in his stint with Eastern Michigan. This got him 19.2 points per game while shooting on a 40.5% clip from all three levels of scoring.