The Brooklyn Nets went into the 2022-23 season trying to build around a pair of superstars in Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, which made it incredibly important that the team was able to surround them with good, cheap role players. One such player who ended up being a nice contributor alongside Durant and Irving was Yuta Watanabe, who had stints in Memphis and Toronto to start his career before getting to Brooklyn last year.
After Durant and Irving saw their respective tenures with the Nets come to an end around the trade deadline, Watanabe found playing time harder and harder to come by, to the point that he did not play in the team’s final three games of the postseason. Still, he flashed enough as a savvy role player who could hit open shots around those two that he figured to have some sort of market entering free agency. On Friday, we learned Watanabe will reunite with Durant in Phoenix, as he became the sixth player in the first 90 minutes of free agency to agree to a minimum deal to join the Suns, as they fill out their roster around their quartet of stars.
Free agent Yuta Watanabe has agreed on a deal with the Phoenix Suns, sources tell @TheAthletic @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 30, 2023
Watanabe, a former undrafted free agent who will turn 29 in October, appeared in 58 games last season for the Nets, which included one start on the final day of the regular season. He averaged 5.6 points and 2.4 rebounds in 16 minutes per game, and knocked down a career-high 44.4 percent of his attempts from behind the three-point line.
