Yuta Watanabe, Edmond Sumner and Markieff Morris will have their contracts guaranteed by the Nets for the rest of the season, tweets Michael Scotto of HoopsHype. Saturday marks the deadline for teams to waive players on non-guaranteed contracts and avoid paying their full-season salaries.
Watanabe has been a tremendous find after signing with Brooklyn in August. He’s making 51.4% of his three-point shots, the best percentage in the league, and is averaging a career-high 7.7 points per game in his fifth NBA season.
Sumner has become a reliable rotation player after missing all of last year with an Achilles injury. The Nets acquired him in a trade with Indiana before the start of the 2021/22 season, then re-signed him last offseason. Sumner has appeared in 33 games, averaging 6.8 PPG in 14.4 minutes per night.
Brooklyn is the seventh team for Morris in a 12-year NBA career. He has only played 19 games and averages 11.4 minutes, but he provides a valuable veteran presence to help mentor the Nets’ young big men.