Yuki Kawamura's Exhibit 10 deal is with the Memphis Grizzlies, while Keisei Tominaga is bound for the Indiana Pacers under the same set up.
Akatsuki Japan star and former B.League MVP Yuki Kawamura is all set to give the NBA a shot.
The spitfire point guard has agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Memphis Grizzlies, his B.League team the Yokohama B-Corsairs announced Sunday.
Exhibit 10 contracts are one-year deals with a minimum NBA salary. Teams can convert their Exhibit 10 contracts into a two-way contract, provided they do so before the start of the season.
Two-way contracts allow players to be simultaneously be on NBA and G League rosters. For the 2023-24 season, teams were allowed to have up to three players on two-way contracts.
Players with three or fewer years of NBA experience can be signed to two-ways, and the Exhibit 10 is essentially a tryout to get into an NBA roster via the two-way contract before the start of the season.
Kawamura looks to follow on the footsteps of fellow national team ace Yuta Watanabe, who signed an Exhibit 10 deal with the Toronto Raptors in 2020 and was later converted to a two-way.
Yuki is coming off a B.League season where he averaged 20.9 points per game, which led all locals. He also averaged 8.1 assists, the best mark in the B1.
In the 2023 FIBA World Cup, Kawamura starred for Akatsuki Japan, averaging 13.6 points and 7.6 assists to lead the Japanese to the Olympic Games in Paris as the highest-ranked Asian team with a 3-2 record.
Aside from Kawamura, Keisei Tominaga is also getting a shot at the NBA via an Exhibit 10 deal with the Indiana Pacers.
Tominaga spent the last three seasons with the Nebraska Cornhuskers, averaging 15.1 points per game in the 2023-24 season.
The lefty sharpshooter helped Nebraska to a 23-11 record and the Cornhuskers made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014.
For the national team, Tominaga averaged 11.4 points during Japan’s World Cup run.