Yuta Watanabe, considered among the top 30 or so players who were not selected in Thursday's NBA Draft, will play for the Brooklyn Nets next month in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, he announced on Twitter on Friday.
The former George Washington University guard, who earned the Atlantic 10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year award this past season, has impressed NBA talent evaluators with his versatility and defensive tenacity. He's greatly improved his outside shooing over the past year as well.
The 206-cm Watanabe, who was born and raised in Kagawa Prefecture, acknowledged fans are disappointed that he wasn't among the 60 players drafted. But "I will do my best" in the Summer League, he wrote in a Twitter message that was retweeted more than 1,400 times in the hour after it was posted online.
The Summer League begins on July 6.
