The best and worst-case scenarios for Cavs’ Emoni Bates draft selection

Worst-case for Bates with Cavs: He never makes his presence felt with the Cavs at all

As for a worst-case scenario for Bates with Cleveland, it’d be with him never making an impact with the Cavaliers really at all in meaningful minutes.

In his rookie season, with it seeming to be a high likelihood that Bates begins the campaign on a two-way contract, it might not be the expectation for him to be a consistent rotational contributor with the Cavaliers. For Bates to help his case, he’ll likely have to have his share of developmental time with the Charge.

Bates is a gifted player who has a nice handle and pick-and-roll shot creation abilities, but his shot selection needs refining if he’s going to have a successful career at the NBA level. In a worst-case scenario, that won’t improve, nor will he show progress as an off-ball player.

Further, athletically, there’s a lot to be desired from him, which currently has not led to Bates consistently creating ample space for his shots, and physically, he’s rail thin right now. In addition, he was fairly injury-prone in college, and it’s clear that he needs to get stronger in years ahead for him to help his cause with the Cavs.

If he can’t progress in these areas, he might not ever get much of a shot with the Cavs. The dude is just a 19-year-old, though, and while the expectations are not what they were a handful of years ago when he was such a highly-touted prospect going into college, if the buy-in is there from him, he undoubtedly could be an impact scorer.

It’ll be on Emoni to show he can take his lumps, learn from them and improve gradually. If he does, the kid might be able to have a very long and successful career.