In pursuit of NBA goal, Arizona assistant Ken Nakagawa leaving Wildcats for G League

Things worked out pretty well for both sides. A borderline first-round pick had he left UA in 2021, Mathurin became an NBA lottery pick in 2022 while Nakagawa was promoted to a UA assistant in 2024 — and is leaving this month to take on a similar role with the G League’s Salt Lake Stars.

“For him to trust me from Day 1 without really having any relationship or anything that meant a lot,” Nakagawa said of Mathurin.

It was one of several highlights over a five-year stint with the Wildcats that began in 2021 when Nakagawa followed UA coach Tommy Lloyd from Gonzaga, where Lloyd was an assistant coach and Nakagawa was the Zags’ video coordinator.

A Los Angeles native who graduated from Long Beach State in 2016, Nakagawa  grabbed a branch of the Dan Monson/Mark Few coaching tree as a student and kept climbing.

He first joined Monson at Long Beach State as a student manager when the former Gonzaga coach was coaching the Beach, then joined Few at Gonzaga as a graduate assistant and eventually became a video coordinator before Lloyd plucked him for his new UA staff in 2021.

Nakagawa said he’s been “really, really lucky” to catch on where he has during his college career while the new G League role is a "small step" toward his goal of an NBA career.

“It was just being exposed to, at Arizona and Gonzaga, competing at a high level, not just in games but in practice, and working with guys that that are capable of playing in the NBA,” Nakagawa said. “It was a great run. I appreciate everything coach Lloyd has done for me and for giving me an opportunity. Obviously, I wouldn't have had this opportunity if it wasn't for him.”

Along the way, Nakagawa repaid the debt especially in opponent scouting and player development. He said working with Mathurin in 2021-22 and with center Motiejus Krivas last season were particularly rewarding because of how those players improved.

As a game scout, Nakagawa said UA’s 71-67 upset win at UConn early last season — a win that put the Wildcats prominently on the national radar — was something of “his baby” that the Wildcats took great care of.

“For the guys to execute that game plan like they did was awesome,” Nakagawa said, then adding with a laugh: “Luckily, it worked.”

On the side of his Gonzaga and Arizona stints, Nakagawa added more to his resume: He worked with the Japanese Basketball Association in 2017 and 2018, was on the Japanese coaching staff for the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2021 and joined the Uganda senior national team staff during the FIBA AfroBasket tournament in August 2025.

As an assistant coach in the G League, Nakagawa is expected to find player development and scouting both taking on a different look: G League teams make frequent roster moves, changing the players Nakagawa will be working with and the players he'll be trying to stop.

“One of the challenges that I'm looking forward to is the instability in the roster for your own team and opponent's team,” Nakagawa said. “That’s definitely a constant message that I got in talking to everybody throughout this process. It’s like `You’ve gotta be flexible and you gotta be open.’“

If needed, Nakagawa has plenty of former Wildcat players to lean on: Joseph Blair, Matt Brase, Miles Simon, Reggie Geary and Jason Terry have all coached in the G League — while Isaiah Fox served on the Salt Lake Stars' staff last season.

Earlier this summer, Nakagawa said even he attended a coaching retreat in Tucson run by Blair, who served as the head coach for Rio Grande Valley last season.

“I was just picking his brain and a couple of his assistants were there too, so that was cool,” Nakagawa said. “At that point, I had already made up my mind that I wanted to make that move. But getting to hear what the day to day looks like and things like that was really, really helpful."

Nakagawa said he’s actually been thinking of pursing a G League/NBA path for a few years, in part because of the relationships he’s built with players who made it there. He is expected to gain some exposure to the NBA's Utah Jazz, the Stars' parent club.

“All those guys (in the NBA) I have relationships with, they’re always like ‘Hey, you could do it at this level, too,’“ Nakagawa said. “That definitely built my curiosity. I wouldn’t say this is a perfect time, but I just felt like this was a good time to do it.”