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China is where many NBA players are going these days because it offers more money and the ability to return to the NBA for the stretch run once the Chinese season is over. That's why former Wizard Andray Blatche has joined former Wizard Jordan Crawford on the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers.
Official: @drayblatche has signed a 1 year deal with the Xinjiang Guanghui Flying Tigers.
— ASM SPORTS (@ASM_SPORTS) September 20, 2014
Free agent center Andray Blatche's deal in China will pay him nearly $2.5M net, source tells Yahoo. He can rejoin the NBA in March.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) September 20, 2014
If you see this as a demotion for Blatche, think of it this way: NBA teams have spent most of their money already, so very few have $2.5 million lying around to give to Blatche. The only ones that do have portions of their mid-level exception available, and if they haven't used them yet on Blatche, they probably won't ever. This way, Blatche collects much more than the veteran's minimum, skips training camp and can add a pro-rated NBA contract to his earnings if he plays well overseas.
Better yet, this means Blatche makes even more money from the Wizards from amnesty payments. There's a complicated offsetting formula that lessens the Wizards' payments should Blatche sign elsewhere in the NBA, but no such provision exists for signing overseas. Thus, Blatche gets his full $8.5 million from Washington (though he won't count against the salary cap), PLUS whatever he makes in China, PLUS any additional money signed from an NBA contract in March minus the offsetting formula. Not bad.
And thus, two-thirds of Ted Leonsis' New Big 3 is playing together in China.