{"id":151180,"date":"2025-07-19T17:57:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T21:57:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=151180"},"modified":"2025-07-19T17:57:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T21:57:04","slug":"bulls-sign-fan-favorite-yuki-kawamura-summer-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/19\/bulls-sign-fan-favorite-yuki-kawamura-summer-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulls Sign Fan Favorite After Special Summer League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday was a win for the short kings, as the Chicago Bulls have agreed to sign 5-foot-8 point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kawamyu01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Yuki Kawamura<\/a> to a two-way contract, per ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania.<\/p>\n<h2>Bulls Sign Yuki Kawamura After Special Summer League<\/h2>\n<p>A Japanese expatriate, Kawamura was well on his way to being an NBA fan favorite before he even joined the league. Following a standout performance for his home country&#8217;s national basketball team in the Paris Olympics, he soon signed a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies. The combination of his popularity and that of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/moranja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ja Morant<\/a>-led Grizzlies allowed a surreal atmosphere to surround him throughout the season. Unfortunately for Kawamura, he was unable to extend his stay in The Volunteer State.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Japanese guard Yuki Kawamura has agreed to a two-way NBA deal with the Chicago Bulls, sources tell ESPN. Bulls finalized the deal with Kawamura&#8217;s agents at Wasserman to sign the 5-foot-8 point guard amid a strong summer league. <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pBYWIwxXz3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/pBYWIwxXz3<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1946666198747459597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 19, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Unimpressively, the 24-year-old averaged just 1.6 points and 0.9 assists per game in 2024-25, shooting 36.7 percent from the field and 30.4 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151191\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151191\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-151191\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25922433_168404789_lowres-300x195.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25922433_168404789_lowres-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25922433_168404789_lowres-1024x666.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25922433_168404789_lowres-768x500.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/USATSI_25922433_168404789_lowres.jpg 1491w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151191\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apr 13, 2025; Memphis, Tennessee, USA; Memphis Grizzlies guard Yuki Kawamura (17) reacts after a three point basket during the third quarter against the Dallas Mavericks at FedExForum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>However, in a pair of April outings, Kawamura averaged 6.0 points and 2.5 assists in 14.8 minutes per game while shooting 42.9 percent from 3. Furthermore, he was solid on his G League assignments. In 24 games (all starts), he averaged 12.4 points, 7.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game while shooting 41.0 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does He Bring To The Windy City?<\/h3>\n<p>Kawamura&#8217;s relatively diminutive size can be a hindrance, as was expected. Nevertheless, he&#8217;s a quick and confident knockdown outside shooter with excellent passing ability. These traits were on full display for the Bulls during the Las Vegas Summer League.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">20 PTS \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5 10 AST \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5 6 3PM<\/p>\n<p>Yuki Kawamura ended Summer League with a BANG! His huge double-double off the bench propelled the <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/chicagobulls?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@chicagobulls<\/a> to victory over the Jazz. <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBASummer?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#NBASummer<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GqMuOR5efT\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/GqMuOR5efT<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBA G League (@nbagleague) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nbagleague\/status\/1946591335466553701?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">July 19, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nIn those five games, Kawamura averaged 9.6 points, 6.6 assists, and 2.2 steals per game. He also shot 39.1 percent from 3.<\/p>\n<div class=\"modal-image-setImageMetadata\">\n<p class=\"ng-binding\">\u00a9 Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Saturday was a win for the short kings, as the Chicago Bulls have agreed to sign 5-foot-8 point guard Yuki Kawamura to a two-way contract, per ESPN&#8217;s Shams Charania. Bulls Sign Yuki Kawamura After Special Summer League A Japanese expatriate, Kawamura was well on his way to being an NBA fan favorite before he even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":151192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1608,62,3],"tags":[297,1332,4557,1224,49401],"class_list":["post-151180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulls","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-nba-g-league","tag-nba-offseason","tag-nba-summer-league","tag-yuki-kawamura"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151228,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151180\/revisions\/151228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}