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Call-Up #9: CJ Watson to Golden State

Call-Up #9: CJ Watson to Golden State
Jan 07, 2008, 03:50 pm
The Golden State Warriors have added point guard CJ Watson, who becomes the ninth call-up of the current D-League season. A 23 year-old in his second year out of Tennessee, Watson was selected 5th overall by the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the 2007 D-League draft. The top ranked player on the DraftExpress call-up list, he will receive the first 10 day contract of the season from a NBA team.

In 16 games with the Vipers this season, Watson averaged 26.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. In his last game against the Austin Toros, the point guard finished with 42 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists in a closely contested double overtime loss.

After graduating from Tennessee, C.J. Watson went undrafted before spending time in Italy and Greece during the 2006-2007 season. After returning, he spent the summer playing for the San Antonio Spurs summer league squad in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City (where he played extremely well), and was added to the training camp roster of the Charlotte Bobcats. Watson decided a shot at the NBA was worth more than a large contract overseas this season, and signed a D-League contract in October.

The Warriors desperately needed a backup point guard after the season ending injury Troy Hudson suffered in December. They waived center D.J. Mbenga yesterday to avoid guaranteeing his contract for the rest of the season, and subsequently chose to give Watson 10 days to prove himself with the team. Golden State can sign him to two 10 day contracts before deciding to either bring him on for the remainder of the season or let him return to the D-League.

A number of NBA teams had made the trip to see Watson play in the D-League this season. The point guard was able to keep the team competitive this season, despite the fact that they lost Gabe Muoneke and Kenny Taylor to Spain and Greece respectively. Steve Novak and Aaron Brooks were recalled to the NBA as well, but Watson still managed to keep his team competitive in his past two games against the Austin Toros (who feature Justin Reed, Marcus Williams and Kris Lang among others).

In addition to his exploits on the basketball court, CJ has also proven to be a fine blogger right here on DraftExpress. We wish him all the best.

All NBA contracts become guaranteed on January 10th, so with just a few days remaining, we could see a handful of NBA players cut before the end of the week. Many of these teams will look to the D-League to fill these newly opened roster spots. With the high level of talent in the NBA’s Development League, we could see a record number of call-ups this season.

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