Yuta Watanabe recently cut the first double-double of his NBA career, and so far this season, Watanabe is averaging 6.7 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 19 minutes of play, with a 3-point shooting percentage of 35.9 percent. Yuta Watanabe has also managed to get his footing with the Raptors. In the game with the Warriors, Yuta Watanabe managed to big hat Peyton Jr. was spectacular. Many people can't help but think of the scene last season when Yuta Watanabe was isolated by first-round pick Edwards.
Yuta Watanabe got a guaranteed contract with the Raptors last season and is currently getting paid $1.76 million. In fact, if Yuta Watanabe went back to Japan to play or came to China to play, he would have gotten a much, much higher salary. But Yuta Watanabe is willing to go to the NBA for his dream and get a lower salary.
Now that Yuta Watanabe is playing so well in the NBA, many people remembered what Yang Yi said at the time, that Zhou Peng was on the same level as Yuta Watanabe. If you take the current Zhou Peng and Watanabe Yuta comparison, may not be very good, but the peak Zhou Peng may not be not Watanabe Yuta level.
Zhou Peng was born in 1989 and is 32 years old. Yuta Watanabe is 27 years old this year, just at his peak. Zhou Peng's characteristics and Watanabe Yuta is very similar, technology are more comprehensive, breakthrough, mid-range, three-point basically have some, and the two are tall and long arms, defense can be defended from the No. 2 position to the No. 4 position.
In fact, you can play in the NBA naturally represents its own hard strength, but did not play in the NBA does not necessarily strength is not good, for example, when the king of Europe Spanones, and Yasco maintenance, they played in the NBA are not good, soon eliminated out of the NBA. a few years of the U.S. team dominance decline in the international, but also proved that the level of the NBA in the downturn.
Many people may remember, He Tianju that year in the NBA's training camp also had a good performance, and Ding Yanyuhang if not because of injuries, but also has a great opportunity to get a formal contract in the NBA. So we can't say that because Yuta Watanabe is playing in the NBA and Zhou Peng is playing in the CBA, we can't assume that the two of them are not on the same level.
Lin said that James won't necessarily win a championship if he comes to the CBA. If Yuta Watanabe does come to play in the CBA, can he be better than Guangdong's Vermes? I don't think so either.
Actually, everything is a matter of chance, if the Raptors hadn't walked away from so many people last season, then Yuta Watanabe might not have had a chance. In other words, if Zhou Qi, Yi Jianlian and these people were willing to stay in the United States to play a lower level of the league, then they also certainly have the opportunity to play again in the NBA. stay in the United States means that can be more exposure in front of NBA scouts, if you come back to the CBA, naturally, will not get so many opportunities.
In the history of Chinese basketball, people who can reach this level of Watanabe Yuta is still quite a lot, a lot of early, peak Ding, peak Zhou Peng can also be, as well as the future of the Zhang Zhenlin and Zeng Fanbo are all have the opportunity. However, Hachimura's level is really just like a chicken. Hachimura is currently a rare talent in Asian history, and has the potential to be an NBA All-Star if there are no problems on the mental level.
So if the Japanese team plays with a full-strength team with no NBA players, how will they win or lose? The first thing that is clear is that the Japanese team is much improved, and there are some top players, but the overall level of the Japanese team is also much worse. Relying on a star to play second-rate teams in Asia can be, but to play with the world's strongest teams, or much worse.
When Japan plays China at the moment, we actually still have the advantage. If we were to play a 7 games to 4 series, I reckon China would win 4-1 or 4-2. Of course the Chinese team should target the world's strongest teams and should not be limited to Japan.
After the expansion of the World Cup, a large number of strong European and American teams were unveiled, which allowed us to start to fully understand the level of European and American teams. In fact, in the 2019 World Cup, although we eventually lost to Poland, but from the front with Poland and the back with Nigeria, China's team has the opportunity to break bread with the world's second-rate powerhouse.
Many people say that Chinese basketball has regressed, in fact, Chinese basketball has been progressing, only in the past because of the mechanism, we can easily enter the Olympic Games and the World Championships, and in the past these two competitions have limited teams, so many European and American powerhouse teams did not have the opportunity to participate, which creates the illusion that we are the world's top eight.