<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Undrafted UCSB forward Alan Williams has signed to play next season with Qingdao of the Chinese Basketball Association, source tells RealGM.</p>— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/624789762533130241">July 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Not weird at all. He'll probably make a bunch more money playing in the CBA this season versus what he would've been guaranteed on an NBA deal. Good for him.
I don't doubt that he will, Bima, but I find it a pity that he couldn't sign with another NBA team, if he couldn't sign with the Rockets. He'll be on the far side of the world, an experience that will certainly be interesting for the young fellow. I wish him well, but I also hope that he makes it in the League someday. I've traveled in Asia. It's a trip.
How many undrafted NCAA players how refused NBA invitations to go to the CBA to return? All they are going to learn there is bad habits on the court and how to spend money off the court. Any reasonable player who wants to play in the NBA would stay in the US or Europe.
One factor is that China's season ends much earlier than NBA's season. This means that guys who signed in China still has a chance to hook up with an NBA team in, say, March 2016-- and that chance might be no worse than a player's chance to make an NBA team when he is some rookie with a non-guaranteed training camp contract. If a player gets signed in March 2016, he may only get partial salary, but I believe that his NBA experience clock starts running and he gets the benefits such as getting closer to unrestricted status and higher minimum salary scale.
I prefer that...perhaps we can still get him during the season, then. Much better than him signing on with one of our competitors.
Pretty smart. He will get to play on a regular basis and dominate in China and look like a beast then sign a nicer guaranteed contract in the NBA in the future than what he would've gotten this summer and being the Rockets last man/bench fodder and going back and forth from the RGV. Same thing would've applied to any other NBA team that would've scooped him up.
Lester Hudson was nearly a Co MVP with Marbury in the Finals and still could not get much minutes with the Clippers. His minutes in the NBA will depend on if it is a playoff caliber team, a middle of the pack team or a lottery team.
That's my point. He's going overseas to get paid to do what he loves to do on a regular basis. It's incredibly hard to make it to an NBA roster and staying on is even harder. It takes a lot of luck with the right opportunity/timing as well in addition to having the necessary skills.
Despite his numbers in summer league he wasn't that good. Most of his points were layups and easy buckets. He didn't show he had a post game and he was a short wide body. He might not have gotten signed by any NBA team if he didn't get that China deal.
