If you could manage to watch today's game long enough, you saw that Yuta was at the game today. That's because the Memphis Grizzlies are in DC to play the Wizards tomorrow. Last night, in a Grizzlies loss, Yuta had his best statistical game in the NBA: 12 minutes, 9 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl. Some of those minutes were in the first/second quarter, where he had a fast break dunk.

Yuta is up with the Grizzlies because of injuries, and because of a dearth of trades before the NBA trade deadline. Because of the travel and formalities, the traded players are not eligible right away leaving some of the active slots open. Tomorrow may be Yuta's last game with the Grizzlies for a while (he'll go back to G League), so those of you in DC may want to try to catch the Wizards game tomorrow. No guarantees he'll play, but we can all hope for the best.

Last edited by xAC (2/08/2020 6:59 pm)

Extremely well said by Alum '04:
 "A brief moment of light on an otherwise dark day."
Wish we could have done better for him, but great to see Yuta here with an NBA team. Humble
and polite, as always.  
A great reminder of better times and Yuta is an excellent reflection on GW.

Yuta is getting some preseason action with the raptors - drills a 3 around 6:20 mark. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhbJNqib1Kw&t=219s&ab_channel=NBA

Thanks for the links Brod.  At the second link, there’s a Yuta highlight video from the game. My favorite part is when he has the skip pass assist to Flynn for a three because he makes the case and just runs back on defense knowing it’s going in before the shot even leaves Flynn’s fingers.  Reminded me of the reaction to Matt Hart’s deep three in the NIT final when ML knew it was in as soon as her shot it.

It is great, as he had to beat out several others for the spot, though wish he had a full contract.
Know or care little about the NBA, outside of Yuta. But I tried to read up on 2-way contracts this year a bit.
Looks different this year. A flat salary of nearly $450,000 ($449,000 and change).
And there was an Exhibit 10 bonus of up to $50,000 for playing with the G-League affiliate. But that might be subsumed by his 2-way deal--or become a guaranteed salary. Someone might know more about this, if it matters.
   More important, it looks like he can play in up to 50 NBA games. 
Not sure if that's likely, but perhaps Toronto will have a need. Yuta has shown his worth in preseason and
if he is on from 3, along with his other skills--including the ability to play any position on the court, he can be a valuable resource
 Kind of good and bad. Less pressure on them to convert to a full contract if he does well--and presumably, he can't sign with anyone else. Contract is way less than NBA minimum if his 2 years of experience are counted.
But a quite nice salary for the G-League time and a good chance to get more more NBA experience if Raptors use him.

https://twitter.com/Akiko_LA/status/1341150368294531072
If I'm interpreting the Google translation correctly, it looks like his Raptors teammates were saying that they all wanted him on the team.

500K??! I'll see you losers at the track tomorrow 6am sharp

I'd bet a niickel Yuta sees some NBA miinutes with COVID making it's rounds

Yahoo Sports Canada interview for your viewing pleasure:
https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/video/1-1-yuta-watanabe-role-213344466.html

LOVE IT!