Second-year Cleveland Cavaliers forward Emoni Bates had a career day Sunday in the team’s regular-season finale vs. the Indiana Pacers, coming off the bench to score 25 points in a 126-118 double-overtime loss to the Indiana Pacers. Bates scored 21 of his 25 points on 3-pointers in a stunning showing from distance after playing a career-high 42 minutes.
“It felt good – I ain’t going to lie,” Bates said after the game. “This was fun for me. My teammates backed me up, were supporting me. So, I mean to have all the confidence in the world, it was fun.”
Once regarded as one of the best prospects in college basketball (and one of the best sophomore prospects ever), Bates fizzled as a prospect as time wore on, going from No. 1 in the class of 2022 to No. 5 in the class of 2021 following a reclassification. His star-crossed college career spanned from Memphis to Eastern Michigan.
Even if his shine as an all-time recruit had worn off by the time he enrolled at Memphis, Bates was still regarded as one of the best scorers in high school basketball. He showed off that marksmanship Sunday, Bates drilling seven of his 15 3-point attempts in the loss and added six rebounds and two assists. It was his first game in two seasons to play more than 30 minutes in an outing after Cleveland, having already locked up its spot in the playoffs, sat nearly all of its starting rotation.
Teammates Nae’Qwan Tomlin and Jaylon Tyson also tallied career highs in the loss with 24 and 31 points, respectively.
It marked just the 10th game Bates played in during the 2024-25 season after playing in 15 as a rookie in 2023-24. Across those two seasons he has averaged 8.3 minutes and 3.1 points per game in those appearances while splitting time between the team’s G League Affiliate, the Cleveland Charge, and the NBA roster.
“He’s gotten better from the beginning of the season,” Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson said. “Beginning of the season, he was trying to find his way. When you have a guy who can long-range shoot like him, there’s a place for him in this league.”
College career had many twists and turns
Bates at one point was considered a prodigious talent as a young teen with a long frame and a quick release that seemed to make him a lock for NBA stardom. However, his development stagnated later in his high school career, knocking him down from the No. 1 player in his class to a prospect outside the top five.
A one-time Michigan State commit, Bates signed with the University of Memphis, playing one season under Penny Hardaway before transferring to Eastern Michigan. At Memphis, he averaged 9.7 points and shot 32.9% from 3-point range before taking a step forward at EMU, where he averaged 19.2 points per game and shot 33% from distance in a starring role.
Cleveland selected Bates with the No. 49 pick in the 2023 NBA draft, making him — then still just 19 years old — one of the youngest players in the class despite completing two full college seasons. He has not carved out a role for himself consistently in the NBA, but his performance in the season finale is a glimpse of what makes him such a fascinating prospect.
In the G League this season, Bates averaged 18.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and shot 33% from 3-point range. That scoring average was 91st among all G League players in the regular season after finishing last season 69th in scoring average (19.8 PPG) among G League players as a rookie.
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