Cavaliers secret draft blunder could have changed everything for the franchise

The Cleveland Cavaliers drafted Emoni Bates over All-Defense wing Toumani Camara, and that blunder is costing them right now

The night of the 2023 NBA Draft, most fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers were over the moon. Armed with a single draft pick at No. 49, the expectations were low on what the Cavs could do. But when the team selected onetime top prospect Emoni Bates, champagne was popped and his role on future Cleveland dynasties was written in stone.

Not everyone was rejoicing; we graded the Cavaliers poorly for the selection, seeing Bates' flaws as much greater than his strengths. As Bates proceeded to light up Summer League and G League games as a shooter, fans continued to clamor for his elevation to the rotation. Evan Shaquille O'Neal is dropping f-bombs on the Cavaliers for not playing Bates:

Here's the problem: Bates is not an NBA player. He has an NBA shot, sure, and it looks good when he is pouring in seven 3-pointers, which is apparently the only game O'Neal has watched. Yet even in the G League, with lesser defenders and more of a green light, Bates only hit 33 percent of his 3-pointers this past season. It took him 17.1 shots per game to average 18.6 points. He is a terrible defender, a poor playmaker, and he isn't even an accurate shooter.

If the Cavaliers want movement shooting, they have Sam Merrill, who is more consistent, a much better defender and has proven himself in big moment. Bates has done nothing but fail in the spotlight; there is no place for him on the Cavaliers, now or in the future, unless something drastically changes.

That bitter reality is par for the course with players taken with the final 10 picks of the second round; the hit rate is much lower. Yet if the Cavaliers had taken a different player instead of Bates, they may still be playing basketball right now.

Drafting Bates over Toumani Camara was a colossal mistake

With the 52nd pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, three slots after Bates went to Cleveland, the Phoenix Suns selected Dayton wing Toumani Camara. He was then included in the multi-team trade that brought Deandre Ayton to the Portland Trail Blazers.

In Portland, Camara has developed into a defensive superstar. He is one of the league's premier on-ball defenders already after just two seasons, and he earned a spot on the All-Defense team despite playing on a bad Portland team. He can stop the ball, stay in front of shift guards, battle with larger forwards, and lock up scoring wings.

He also shot 37.5 percent from deep on 4.6 attempts per game, an extremely valuable skill that keeps him from being an offensive liability, as so many other plus defenders are. And with the 6'8" Camara and his 7'0" wingspan lurking on defense and then hitting a solid amount of 3-pointers on the other end his impact is truly elite.

That player would be a mainstay in the Cavaliers' rotation at the moment. Perhaps the team doesn't trade for De'Andre Hunter if Camara is on the team, or perhaps they are more aggressive in moving on from Isaac Okoro. The best part is that as a second-round pick, Camara is making peanuts the next few seasons as he plays out a four-year, $7.6 million contract that is only halfway completed.

Even if the Cavaliers missed Camara's upside, as so many other teams did -- even Portland drafted lanky project Rayan Rupert 10 picks earlier -- the Bates selection was a colossal failure. Trayce Jackson-Davis went later than Bates and would be an ideal backup center; Jalen Wilson and Jaylen Clark are NBA rotation players.

Yet as painful as the wasted pick is, the upside of knowing what could have been is even worse. Toumani Camara would be changing the face of the Cavaliers' future right now; instead, he is part of an up-and-coming Portland team, while Cleveland is stuck taking shots from Shaquille O'Neal about a player who isn't worthy of a roster spot.