Emoni Bates drops hint via social media as he works toward return from torn meniscus

Back in October, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Emoni Bates revealed that he had a torn meniscus and underwent surgery for it. The announcement came just around a fortnight prior to Cleveland’s 2024-25 season opener against the Toronto Raptors on Oct. 23.

Fast forward to just over two months from Bates’ social media post, and he has yet to play a game for the Cavaliers or Cleveland Charge (the team’s G League affiliate) this season.

However, Bates made another social media post on Instagram on Saturday, and that post seemingly hinted that he’s hoping to return to the floor sooner rather than later. It was captioned with the word “soon” and featured multiple pictures of him getting some work in.

Bates was drafted by the Cavaliers with the No. 49 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft after he carved out a collegiate basketball career that featured plenty of ups and downs.

He massively underperformed in his inaugural season of college basketball, which he spent playing for the University of Memphis.

But he somewhat rectified himself from his subpar freshman season with a more productive sophomore campaign. As a member of Eastern Michigan University, he torched defenses for 19.2 points per contest while shooting 40.5 percent from the floor and 33.0 percent from 3-point range.

Bates, a former top recruit, is a gifted scorer, and he showed off his scoring chops with the Charge a season ago as well. He averaged 24.8 points per game in the Showcase Cup and 19.8 points per game during the G League regular season.

Fans of the Cavaliers shouldn’t expect Bates to receive a whole lot of playing time with the NBA team anytime soon, as the team is clicking on all cylinders right now and has plenty of depth up and down the roster. At 21-3, the Cavaliers have the best record in the Eastern Conference and entire NBA.

But even if Bates isn’t likely to have a major impact with the Cavaliers in his second season in Cleveland, hopefully he’ll be healthy enough to log some serious minutes for the Charge.