But the Cavaliers took a big swing with their only selection in taking Eastern Michigan's Emoni Bates, who was a five-star recruit just two years ago and was regarded as one of the top five recruits in the nation.
The 6'9 Bates attended Memphis for one disappointing season, struggling through injuries to his finger and back that would cause him to miss fifteen games, and didn't adapt well to coach Penny Hardaway's decision to move him to point guard, which he had never played in the past.
Bates averaged only 9.7 points and 3.3 rebounds for the Tigers and would transfer to Eastern Michigan, where he would be suspended on gun charges before he played a game for the Eagles.
After a plea bargain, Bates would play for EMU, averaging nineteen points and just under six rebounds a game in being named to the All-MAC third team.
Bates is known as an incredibly gifted shot creator but not as a shooter, which seems to be more of a need for Cleveland.
Bates shot just thirty-six percent from the floor in his season with Memphis and barely forty percent for Eastern Michigan and thirty-three percent from beyond the three-point area, so this isn't a gifted shooter.
However, he moves well with the ball, makes things happen in one on one situations, and knows how to score, which is a skill that doesn't always come to a player naturally.
John Hollinger, the former Grizzlies GM, wonders about his defense and his athleticism, and questions if he can develop beyond being a gifted scorer in a league that has many gifted scorers.
To me, Bates has all of those questions, and in a league that continues to shift to a three-point game, Bates doesn't shoot as well as he should and he'll have to devote lots of work on the defensive end in order to develop into a key contributor.
However, Bates makes things happen with the ball in his hands (and he'll have to learn how to play when the ball isn't in his hands) and passes the ball very well, so there is plenty of upside here if Bates is willing to work and the Cavaliers (and their G-League team, the Charge) are patient as well.
Bates is likely to spend much of the season with the G-League Charge on a "two-way" contract that enables the Cavaliers to move him up and down between the two teams when the roster situation- I.E. injuries dictate a need for him on the main roster.
Bates is far from a sure thing but when a team is picking forty-ninth in a fifty-eight spot draft- who is?
If you are going to gamble, why not gamble on a player with a high upside if everything goes perfectly?
Late in the second round is when you take a risk or two and while I'm far from promising success for Bates from a team that didn't have the patience to groom a player with similar talent and problems in Kevin Porter Jr, I don't blame them for trying at this stage of the draft.
At the conclusion of the draft, the Cavaliers signed Craig Porter, a 6'2 guard from Wichita State.
Porter averaged thirteen points, six rebounds, and just under five assists for the Shockers last season in the third of his three seasons in Wichita.
Porter is expected, like Emoni Bates, to be signed to a two-way contract with the expectation that he will spend most of his first season with the G-League Charge.
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