Soon after the Memphis Grizzlies ended their disastrous 2023-24 season in late April, veteran wing Yuta Watanabe announced on his personal Instagram account that he intends to decline his $2.6 million player option for the 2024-25 season and resume his professional career in his native Japan.
Now, nearly two months after his new break, it appears the 29-year-old is getting closer to finalizing his career-changing move, as Donatas Urbonas of BasketballNews.com reported on X (previously known as Twitter) Tuesday morning that Watanabe is “widely expected to join the Chiba Jets,” according to his sources.
Yuta Watanabe is poised to make one of the biggest moves in Japanese basketball league history, as he is widely expected to join the Chiba Jets, per sources.
— Donatas Urbonas (@Urbodo) June 11, 2024
Grizzlies wing Yuta Watanabe nearing deal with JBL Super League team
The Jets have established themselves as one of the top clubs in the JBL Super League over the last few seasons, amassing a stellar record of 131-31 over the previous three years and coming off a season in which they reached the semifinals of Japan’s B1 Division and won the East Asia Super League.
They will now add the talents of Watanabe, who has established himself as a highly efficient long-range sniper over the course of his six-year NBA career.
In 213 NBA games, the veteran has averaged 4.2 points and 2.3 rebounds while shooting 37.0 percent from distance.
This season, while playing for the Toronto Raptors and subsequently the Memphis Grizzlies, he was used sparingly, appearing in only 34 games and averaging 3.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 13.6 minutes per game.
With this move back overseas, Watanabe hopes to earn more playing time and, as a result, contribute to the Jets’ aspirations to rule supreme in the Super League once more.
