Yukimanía isn’t leaving the NBA. For now, it is simply moving once more in search of a place to put down roots. Something increasingly unlikely.
Yuki Kawamura, the Japanese Olympic point guard who had been with the Indiana Pacers during the NBA Summer League, has just signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the L.A. Clippers, according to a post on the team’s official X account.
An Exhibit 10 contract, recall, is considered a one-year deal with a non-guaranteed minimum salary, but if a player who signs it is released before the start of the season (which is the most common pattern), he can be eligible for a sizable bonus if he remains with the team’s G League affiliate for at least 60 days. This year, that bonus is expected to reach $91,000.
Does he really have the capacity to make an NBA career?
In his perpetual struggle to be more than marketing and a prop around which to monetize the Asian market, Kawamura — talent more than height — has just delivered a solid Summer League, totaling 41 points and 24 assists over five games while wearing the Pacers’ jersey. Yet his shooting issues persist: he connected on only 11 of 32 field-goal attempts (34.4%) and 1 of 13 from three-point range during the event.
Kawamura rose to international fame during the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, when he averaged 20.3 points and 7.7 assists per game for Japan and scored 29 points in the group-stage overtime defeat to France.
He has played the last two seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Chicago Bulls, both times on a two-way contract. Last season, in Illinois, he averaged 3.4 points and 2.6 assists with the Bulls in 18 games, all as a bench player, and 11.6 minutes. With a much more prominent role on the court in the G League, he posted averages of 18.7 points and 11 assists in 11 games.
