Go get 'em Yuta. Congrats!

For those interested... https://www.spotrac.com/nba/toronto-raptors/yuta-watanabe-27713/

Mike K wrote:

Go get 'em Yuta. Congrats!

For those interested... https://www.spotrac.com/nba/toronto-raptors/yuta-watanabe-27713/

That's better than my first few years out of college. 

Yuta got a good amount of playing time in 1st half. May have been first or one of the first off the bench.
But his incompetent teammates are not passing to him,even when he's open and so he has had no shots at the half.

Great article. I think more of his personality shines through in his native language than any interviews i've heard in english. 

Reminds me of that quote from Modern Family: "Do you know how smart I am in Spanish?!"

Played a lot of minutes, but I don't think he took a shot in the entire 2nd half. Scored half of his points within the first minute or two of the game. 2nd worse +/- on the team as well. On the bright side, it was pretty amazing see Yuta start on a nationally televised game.

It is both remarkable and perhaps a little sad that we may already view Yuta's brief NBA career within the context of alltime GW players participating in the NBA.  In less than three full seasons, Yuta now ranks 6th in both games played and minutes played in the NBA among GW players.  He needs 54 more minutes to reach the 1,000 minute mark, and 57 more minutes to pass Yinka Dare for 5th in minutes played (while presently having appeared in 30 fewer games than Yinka).  After Yinka, Yuta will be gunning for Gene Guarilla who presently sits in 4th place in both games played and minutes played with 129 and 1,082 respectively.  After that, it will take some time to move up as our top 3 are:

3) Joe Holup        192 games, 3,526 minutes
2) Corky Devlin    210 games, 4,025 minutes
1) Mike Brown      626 games, 10,961 minutes

If his career proceeds along the lines of what we've recently seen, it is very conceivable that Yuta ends up in 2nd place on this list.  Brownie's mark is a long way off.

Interestingly though, Yuta has already appeared in more games and played more NBA minutes than both Pops and Tyler.

Yuta recovered and actually started Saturday's game.
Looks like 11 points,including 3-5 from 3,4 rebounds and a steal in 24 minutes. 0 turnovers.
Pretty good for half the game.

Yuta is reportedly in Las Vegas and has been on the Raptors summer league roster, though he hasn't played
 yet.
The fact that he is there must mean that his partial guarantee kicked in. It was something like August 11, so he should get at least $375,000 from the Raptors, should they be so evil, shortsighted and insane and not to keep him on the Opening Day roster.
 Full contract, I believe is something like $1.7 million, the minimum for his NBA experience.
   Don't know why Yuta is in Summer League. Better off resting in Japan and enjoying family (and probably endorsements) than risking injury. But the Raptors must want him there, though personally think it's not worth it for him, except for exposure and camaraderie.  And only two games left (he and his agents were smart enough not to put him on the court before partial guarantee kicked in.)
   Anyway, maybe he will play tonight at 7 on the regular NBA TV that seems included on a number of cable systems. For those in Canada (none here as far as I know), it is also on something called TSN2. 
 

Last edited by jf (8/14/2021 1:10 pm)

Yes, indeed,and added a couple more forwards, too,though had waved some earlier.
If they don't screw with Yuta by not keeping him after going through trading camp,by all rights,he should catch on elsewhere.

Thanks. Love seeing Yuta play