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Don't know if anyone watches ESPN in the mornings but SVP gave Yuta a nice little shoutout (albeit also a nod about the infamous dunk)
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Yuta with a nice first half against Orlando tonight. He leads the raptors in scoring with 11 on 4 of 6 shooting, and also leads them and rebounding with six boards at the half. Hopefully he gets some running the second half and ends up with a double double. I imagine it would be his first in the NBA.
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Yuta finishes with 21 points 2 assists, and 6 rebounds on 7-11 shooting. Career high in points.
Congrats to Yuta!
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Wow, that's great for Yuta!
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MG14 wrote:
Yuta finishes with 21 points 2 assists, and 6 rebounds on 7-11 shooting. Career high in points.
Congrats to Yuta!
Messing with the Raptors attempt at Tanking. They’ll bench him next game ;)
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BM wrote:
MG14 wrote:
Yuta finishes with 21 points 2 assists, and 6 rebounds on 7-11 shooting. Career high in points.
Congrats to Yuta!
Messing with the Raptors attempt at Tanking. They’ll bench him next game ;)
HA! Will Yuta get a DNP-CD, along with Toronto's other 4 starters in the next game!! The Raptors put out this lineup expecting a hard-earned loss to improve their draft position, not for Yuta(and someone named Paul Watson) to play like the 1992 version of Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan and lead the Raptors to a pretty convincing win!! Orlando is actually tanking a lot worse than Toronto, but it looks like Orlando had their normal tanking lineup playing last night.
Toronto was actually very good last year, I thought they would turn it around and once again be one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference, but that's not going to happen. Maybe the short offseason and playing their home games in Florida has disrupted the team chemistry they had last year. This should mean more minutes/opportunity to finish out the season for Yuta and a chance to be in the every-game rotation for Toronto next year.
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Raptors are one spot out of making the play-in game for the playoffs. Remember playoffs no longer cap at top-8 teams. Team is actually looking to make a run. Issue has been COVID and injuries. Toronto should be getting much healthier the next several weeks and made a number of trades at the deadline to improve overall roster. Rooting for them to take the last spot.
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Good explanation,B&B.
And rooting for them to give Yuta a guaranteed multi-year contract, which he has certainly earned.
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I think Yuta's in a good situation. I think he's played his way to an NBA contract, and if he isn't signed by Toronto, he'll be a free agent that other teams will definitely look at. I think he prefers to stay with the Raptors, but if doesn't work out, I'm pretty sure we'll see him on another NBA team next year. Additionally, his popularity in Japan is also a huge plus for him, where his team (first the Grizzlies and now the Raptors) sell tons of NBA product.
Last edited by xAC (4/17/2021 7:12 pm)
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BuffandBlueBandit, good point about the Raptors still being in a position to qualify for the play-in(why would the NBA have a play-in format when half of the teams qualify for the playoffs!!) even though they are just 23-34. Toronto has been "resting" starters in recent games as if they want to tank, so I'm not sure what they're trying to do at this point. It looked like Toronto went into the Orlando game with every intention of losing, not trying to qualify for 9th or 10th place. Toronto's record is bad enough to where they could really improve their lottery position if they lost 4 or 5 in a row.
NBA League Pass has been free for the last few days, they usually have the free preview for the weekend, so you should be able to catch Toronto hosting Oklahoma City tonight at 7. Oklahoma City is another team who is tanking so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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Looks like Yuta played 29 minutes,including crunch time at the end of the game.
10 points,4 rebounds and 4 assists,some at a critical time.
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Hope Yuta's good play won't get him "rested" status on the bench. That would suck!
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It's official! Yuta now an NBAer.
Raptors Sign Watanabe To A Standard NBA Contract | Toronto Raptors
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Congrats to Yuta! Well deserved!
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Wow! That's great.
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Was doing some reading up on two-way contracts. Players can only have them for the first three years, so Toronto needed to make a decision as soon as possible. So happy that Yuta has earned his way into this deal and Toronto sure seems to be a great environment for him. He appears to be pretty well-loved up there by the fan base.
Go Raptors!