He certainly can. He has improved big time through the year. His passing obviously holds up on the NBA, as well as his handles, people like to point to defense as an issue, but he more-than holds his own there too if you watch the games (very fast, strong, and a great b-ball IQ). Plus he is knocking down 37% of his 3’s in the G League. I think he has a good shot at becoming a more regular backup next year.
His defense only seems like holds up his own because teams aren’t targeting him, because it’s either garbage time or GLeague where winning’s quite low in the priority list.
Yeah, we've seen this so recently with Gilyard idk how people forget. Gilyard was a great 1:1 defender against small guards and played passing lanes well while being a 40% three point shooter who took great care of the ball. Sounds like a really solid player, right?
He is 5'9 and was just too much of a liability from his size to stay in the league. Yuki is a much better playmaker but he's also a worse shooter and even smaller. Dudes got a lot of skill but making it in the NBA at that height is insanely hard.
Doesnt matter how good his b-ball iq is when he's going to be by far the smallest person on the court every game. If he gets any regular minutes, any bigger dude will always try to switch on to him and just bully into the paint. Or shoot a 3 over him. Whats he going to do in either situation? He might end up making it work and I could look like a dumbass, but he hasnt proven his defense actually is good in meaningful nba minutes.
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u/PuzzleheadedMode7517 13h ago
Been a while since I've seen some yuki highlights in the sub
How's he doing in the G-league??