Emoni Bates is THE best High School Basketball player in the country regardless of class. Bates is a 6’8 200 Lbs SF that plays for Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti MI. In the 2019-2020 season Emoni won the Gatorade Player of the Year, he is the youngest HS player to win this award and he’s only a Sophomore.
Emoni has been getting praise from former and current NBA stars such as Kendrick Perkins, Jayson Tatum, and Kevin Durant, most scouts and coaches have compared him to Kevin Durant. “Yeah yeah yeah, every tall guy that can shoot is compared to Kevin Durant, what’s so different about this guy?” Well Emoni is already a generational talent and has room to grow physically and his basketball skills, he’s only 16 and still might hit another growth spurt to get him to 7 foot. Averaging 32 PPG, 9 RPG, 3 APG, and 2 SPG, Emoni can dominate with his NBA ready jump shot, and can create space with his ball handles. Once Emoni hits you with that side to side crossover there is no way of stopping him. The one flaw at the moment is the aggressiveness at the rim, Emoni has to get more physical because he has the bounce to dunk on people and has the ability to change direction in mid air. He’s shown improvement this season with his finishing so if he fully develops it he might be a Ben Simmons with a jump shot. Another little flaw is that he needs to add more muscle but Kevin Durant has proven you can still dominate playing his way without having barely any muscle.
College for Emoni?: Emoni has already got offers from big colleges such as Michigan, Michigan State, DePaul, Florida State, and Kentucky. I will assume North Carolina and Duke will offer him with some other big colleges. If he wants to stay close to home he’ll pick Michigan or Michigan State, if that’s the case he’ll pick Michigan State because they have the better program and most likely will get more top 100 players over the next two years, plus their coach is amazing at getting players ready for the NBA. But if the NBA brings back the rule where you can go straight to the NBA from HS, I can see Emoni doing that because he is already NBA ready and has the skills to dominate. If the G-League route is a good option in two years Emoni can test the waters there, that would really hurt the NCAA to lose probably one of these best HS players since LeBron.
Verdict: Emoni Bates will be a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft one day and will needs some years of experience to get into a groove like KD needed when he joined the league, but I’ll put good money on Emoni being a future MVP and an NBA Champion by the end of his career.
TheDyspatch 