Timberwolves should take a chance on big name prospect in second round

There are a little over three weeks remaining until the 2023 NBA Draft commences. Heading into draft night, the Minnesota Timberwolves will be without a first-round pick. Unless they make a trade to acquire one, it will be their second time in the last three years not adding a first-round pick to their roster.

With the Timberwolves slipping into the playoffs this year after taking down the Thunder in the play-in tournament, their pick landed just outside the lottery at 16th. Unfortunately, that pick ended up with the Utah Jazz as part of the Rudy Gobert trade last summer. That leaves Minnesota with one lone pick in the 2023 Draft, at 53rd overall.

There are a multitude of players that the Timberwolves will be looking at with their late second-rounder. Those familiar with the NBA landscape are well aware of how much talent exists outside of the lottery and even the first round of the draft. One player Minnesota may want to take a chance on is 19-year old Eastern Michigan sophomore, Emoni Bates.

Emoni Bates is a sleeping giant in the 2023 NBA Draft class.

Many Timberwolves fans have probably heard Emoni Bates’ name mentioned in the last year or two. That is because he entered his college career as one of the top prospects in his class, drawing comparisons to Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry with his unique size and shooting range.

But since his grand entrance to NCAA basketball in 2021, his hype has died down a significant amount. Playing his first collegiate season with the University of Memphis in 2021-22, Bates suffered multiple injuries that limited him to 18 games for the year.

Couple that with him playing out of position for most of the season, and Bates’ first year in college was vastly underwhelming. In 2022-23, he transferred to Eastern Michigan to play for his hometown team, the Eagles. With a change of scenery, Bates largely returned to form and got scouts buzzing about him once again.

The Minnesota Timberwolves could use Emoni Bates’ unique scoring prowess.

Once projected as a lottery pick, Emoni Bates is now slated to go somewhere in the mid-to-late second round of next month’s NBA Draft. He is someone the Minnesota Timberwolves should be heavily considering using their 53rd pick on.

In his sophomore season with Eastern Michigan, Bates upped his scoring average by nearly 10 points from the previous year to 19.2 points per game with the Eagles. While his shooting splits of 41% from the floor and 33% from three-point range are not much to write home about, there is reason to believe his full potential has not yet been realized.

Bates’ ability to score from all three levels puts him in a special category of offensive player. Many players like him are not able to be properly utilized at the college level and end up finding greater success in an environment like the NBA where spacing is plentiful.

Considering Bates’ raw talent, his upside gives him more value than many of the players projected around him. The Minnesota Timberwolves should be thrilled at the opportunity to employ him in a role similar to that of Jaylen Nowell, where he could operate as an offensive spark plug and get points on the board quickly.

At his best, Emoni Bates is a prolific scoring machine. Standing at 6-foot-9, his guard-like skills should allow him to thrive in the NBA game from the jump. Several teams will shy away from him because of his injury troubles, but players like Michael Porter Jr. have shown us that when the talent is there, sometimes that is all that matters.