Recently, the Raptors officially announced that they have signed a formal NBA contract with Yuta Watanabe, a two-way contract player on the team. Yuta Watanabe himself also wrote on social media: "From the Exhibit10 contract → the two-way contract → the formal contract! Keep putting in the effort and get rewarded!
Yuta Watanabe previously signed a temporary contract with the Raptors and is only paid $70,000 this season. This season, Yuta Watanabe has played in 39 games, averaging 4.0 points and 3.3 rebounds in 13.4 minutes per game, shooting 44.8% from the field and 40% from three-point range. He has scored 11, 21 and 10 points in the last three games than he has ever had before. In the last six games, Yuta Watanabe has averaged 10.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game, shooting 62.2% from the field and 55.6% from three-point range, and he has steadily entered the Raptors' rotation.
From 2013 to the United States to chase his dreams, Yuta Watanabe has been struggling in the United States for 8 years, and his experience is not even summed up in four words. When he first arrived in the United States, Watanabe could only speak a few simple words of English, which was not easy to settle in the United States, not to mention that his goal was the NBA, but he was not afraid of difficulties, and he was always working hard for his goals.
During his four years at George Washington University, Yuta Watanabe continued to improve his physical skills and basketball skills while learning languages, and eventually became the first Asian to open the NCAA to the NBA.
After arriving in the NBA, Yuta Watanabe is only a marginal player, but the sporadic playing time has not made him lose his morale, after leaving the Grizzlies at the beginning of this season, he may have been the last of the 20 people in the Raptors' training camp, but he relied on his own defensive skills to slowly enter the rotation and gain time, until now he finally has a guarantee contract.
Watanabe really got a foothold in the NBA, not on offense, but on solid defense, how active he is on the defensive end we can see, this season his defensive efficiency value is 103.2, 103.2 level? Beverley, who is mad dog-biting defense, is 106.1, Simmons, the best defensive hit, is 106.7, and Yuta Watanabe's defensive efficiency of 103.2 is actually very high.
In the previous raptors and timberwolves game, Yuta Watanabe was selected as one of the top five goals by Edward Shu, and although the background of being blocked was a bit inferior, the players who actively defended never lost people.
After signing with the Raptors, Yuta Watanabe once again became the only Asian yellow-skinned player in the NBA. Yuta Watanabe's signing is the result that everyone in the Raptors is willing to see, and everyone in the Raptors recognizes Yuta Watanabe, the first to train, the last to go after the training, he won the recognition of everyone with his efforts.
Efforts may not be successful, but if you want to succeed, you must pay hard, Watanabe Yuta just entered the NBA, shooting is not allowed, the offensive ability with the ball is weak, the defense is also very soft, no team is optimistic about him. But through hard work, he has a place in the Raptors and a foothold in the NBA.
At that time, As the first player to land in the NBA, Yuta Takumi may have been driven by the Japanese market, but now Yuta Watanabe is completely through personal efforts to settle down in the NBA, and yuta Watanabe's jersey sales in Japan are far more than other players in the NBA, and he has become a national hero in Japan.
Seeing Yuta Watanabe playing in the NBA, we can't help but be very envious, don't forget that there is a mixed-race player in Japan, Hachimura, who has played the starter in the Wizards, Japan already has two NBA players, and the Chinese men's basketball team has not had NBA players for many years, after the future Yi Jianlian retired, the Chinese men's basketball team is estimated to meet the Japanese men's basketball team is estimated to be hanging!
Yuta Watanabe's experience is very similar to Jeremy Lin's, although he did not play the highlight performance of Lin Crazy, but he also proved once again after Jeremy Lin that the yellow people's outside players can also gain a foothold in the NBA by hard work, and his experience and his spirit of hard work are worth learning from everyone.