Speaking with reporters at the NBA combine this week in Chicago, Emoni Bates said he has pre-draft workouts scheduled with eight teams. Asked which teams, he said he couldn't name them all "off the top of my head, but I know Detroit is one." The Ypsilanti native and (eventual) Eastern Michigan product has the Pistons on his mind.
"They got my boy Jalen (Duren), so I would love to play over there, especially (because) that’s my hometown," Bates said Thursday. "Me and him, we go way back, so that would be a blessing for me."
Bates and Duren first connected when they were in sixth grade. Bates said he saw Duren play and was so blown away by his size that "I DM'd him, like, 'Bro, you are huge.' I didn't think he was my age, but I was trying to get him to play with me." With Bates in Michigan and Duren in Philadelphia, it wasn't feasible. But they made it happen several years later at Memphis as the headliners of the top recruiting class in the country in 2021.
And that's when things started to spiral for Bates.
Once the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2022 who had been splashed on the cover of Sports Illustrated and likened to Kevin Durant (and Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James) at the age of 15, Bates was still viewed as a one-and-done lottery pick after leaving high school a year early and joining Penny Hardaway at Memphis. But a rocky, injury-marred freshman season led Bates to transfer to Eastern Michigan, where high-volume scoring on relatively low-percentage shooting wasn't enough to redeem his NBA stock. So here is now, a former "straight-to-the-NBA No. 1 pick," said Sports Illustrated, who might not be drafted at all. At best, he's a second-round pick.
Wherever he lands, drafted or not, Bates said on Instagram Live said last week that "Detroit, Charlotte and Dallas are three teams that I like." One of the best games of his college career happened to come on the Pistons' home floor last November when Bates dropped 30 points on Michigan in his EMU debut. He spent the rest of the season trying to straighten out his NBA future at his hometown university, while Duren, the 13th overall pick in 2022, was taking off with the Pistons.
"I talk to him every day, that’s my dog," said Bates. "He knows how good I am. I done played against him, played with him, so he’s just like, 'You gotta remind them again.' That’s his main thing with me, 'Just remind them who you are.' And that’s what I’m trying to do."
Bates averaged 19.2 points and shot 33 percent from three in 30 games last season, while being named third-team All-Conference. Duren was named second-team All-Rookie as the youngest player in the NBA. At the end of the Pistons' season, which hardly went as planned, GM Troy Weaver said the sort of thing about Duren that used to be said about Bates: "That’s one guy I won’t ever put a ceiling on."
Bates' ceiling remains high. On some days, the Durant comparisons still ring true. He took Duren's advice and reminded scouts with a sparkling shooting display at the combine, draining 25 of 30 in a shoot-off-the-dribble drill (tied for first) and 19 of 25 in a three-point drill (second), per MLive. Bates said he watches Durant a lot "just because our bodies our similar, same length, both long." While Bates boasts a 6'9 frame, his wingspan isn't nearly as impressive as Durant's. That will hold him back in the NBA, starting in the draft. So will a below-average vertical.
Is Bates worth a flier for the Pistons? He might be. He's 19 and still full of that precious commodity we call potential, at least as a shooter. A new coach and a clean slate in Detroit might help him fulfill it. If there were questions about Bates' basketball habits in college -- Is he just a me-first scorer? Does he see beyond himself? -- he seemed to answer some of those this week when he said "college helped me mature as a young man," notably in "my attitude."
"Being able to be receptive to good and bad criticism, I feel like that’s been helping me a lot," he said. "Being able to watch film and see what I’m doing wrong and just get better each and every day, that’s really something I had to get over the hump on. ...I was young. When you’re young, you think you know everything but you really don’t, so I’m really learning how to just listen and take and receive."
Whether anyone takes Bates in the draft remains to be seen. What they might receive is an unknown. Two years ago, these would have been questions too silly to ask. Now, Bates says he's "just trying to get through the door and get a chance." If it comes in Detroit, with one of his old teammates and oldest friends, the 19-year-old might feel young again. Imagine that.
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