Suns’ Kevin Durant Reveals His Part In Recruiting Yuta Watanabe

During the 2023 offseason, the Phoenix Suns acquired Bradley Beal in a trade to form a star-studded three with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Despite having some great top-end talent, the Suns’ depth leaves a lot to be desired. As a result, the Suns front office took many attempts to correct the problem, including signing free agents Eric Gordon, Keita Bates-Diop, Bol Bol, and Yuta Watanabe, among others.

Suns’ Kevin Durant Reveals His Part In Recruiting Yuta Watanabe

Last season, Durant and Yuta Watanabe were colleagues on the Nets before Durant was moved to Phoenix in a blockbuster trade at the deadline. Prior to that trade, Durant had publicly lauded Watanabe numerous times during his time in Brooklyn, when the 28-year-old played an important role off the bench.

Durant was Watanabe’s main recruiter when the Suns tried to sign him in free agency.

Watanabe had stated to the public that Durant was one of the reasons he chose Phoenix.

“I really enjoy playing with him. He’s a great teammate, a great guy, great leader. So, after he got traded I was actually really sad, but I’m glad that I have another opportunity to play with him,” Watanabe said.

“We have good chemistry — we played really well together last year in Brooklyn. I hope that we can keep playing well together in Phoenix.”

Durant expressed similar sentiments during a media availability over the weekend.

“Definitely,” he said when asked if he recruited Watanabe to the Suns. “Once they told me he was one of the guys they was targeting, I hit him up for sure.

“I like being around Yuta. I love the journey of somebody who’s a quiet guy but an extremely hard worker and he loves to play basketball. It’s that simple with him. I’ve enjoyed seeing his growth in his routine every single day when we were in Brooklyn, so I wanted to continue that here in Phoenix.”

“I was very excited. I enjoyed playing with Yuta in Brooklyn,” Durant began.

“Such a bright basketball player. Feel like he’s always in the right spot. He plays extremely hard on the defensive side of the ball as well and then on top of that, his jump shot is getting better and better each year.”

Watanabe, in particular, piqued the Suns’ interest owing to his excellent marksmanship for the Brooklyn Nets early in the 2022-23 season. And, at 6’9, he possessed the height and length to cope with bigger players on defence, giving him such a versatile weapon for competing teams.

As a result, it’s no surprise that Watanabe’s former Nets colleague, Kevin Durant, had a significant role in pushing the 28-year-old Japanese international to join the Suns in free agency.

 

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