Emoni Bates is largely considered one of the best NBA Draft prospects of the last decade. Will the Detroit Pistons be able to select him in 2022?
Emoni Bates became the first sophomore to ever win Gatorade’s National Player of the Year award, and his efforts have been recognized across the country as a potential generational talent. He’s playing in Ypsilanti, Michigan, on the radar of the Detroit Pistons.
Bates is emerging as a high school basketball legend after averaging 32 points per game this season which included a 63 point and 21 rebound performance back in February.
Every single decade there comes a player who’s destined to transcend the landscape of the league.
In the 80’s it was Michael Jordan, the 90’s was Kobe Bryant, the 00’s was LeBron James, and the 10’s could very well end up being Luka Doncic. Could Bates be the 20’s star?
The ongoing theory for Pistons fans is that he could end up being Detroit’s version of LeBron. A homegrown talent playing in their backyard.
Bates will headline the 2022 NBA Draft class, and if he were able to come out today, he’d likely still end up being a first round pick. However in 2022, he’s almost certainly going to be the number one overall pick.
With the Pistons now in a rebuild, they could easily set themselves up to be in a position where they can draft him, as it would likely change the course of their franchise.
More from PistonPowered
- Which Detroit Pistons could save Team USA in the Olympics?
- Detroit Pistons could have major roster churn after 2023-24 season
- The best Detroit Pistons to wear each uniform number
- Full Detroit Pistons NBA 2K24 ratings
- Detroit Pistons: Who will sign the remaining NBA free agents?
Getting there is going to be difficult though. While it ultimately may not matter, next season Detroit is going to be too good to lose the amount of games that they did this year. They also may not be good enough to make the playoffs, and they’ll find themselves with an awkward late lottery pick.
As it stands, when the time comes for the Pistons to have to lose out in order to potentially obtain the top overall pick, they’ll only have two current players under contract. Blake Griffin (who has a player option) and Sekou Doumbouya (who has a team option but will stay in Detroit).
This will in all likelihood change, as Detroit will most likely extend Luke Kennard, and re-sign Christian Wood.
The good news here is that because they’ve given themselves so much financial flexibility, they can construct their roster in a way that sets themselves up for the aforementioned pick. The problem is that the days of “trusting the process” are long gone, and teams aren’t advertantly tanking anymore.
Whoever wants to select Bates will have to have the number one overall pick. It could very well be Detroit that year, but the path to that point is long and full of frustration.