For a few glorious weeks in 2024, Lindy Waters III looked like an incredible free-agent find for the Golden State Warriors. He sank seven of his first 12 three-point attempts to start the season and went 20-for-52 from deep in his first 15 games as the Warriors started the season 12-3. It sounds crazy in hindsight, but there was genuine discussion about whether the Warriors had too much depth for a functional rotation.
He hit some big shots, though his sickest one came to win a preseason game, which kicked off a huge celebration. Don’t tell these guys exhibition games don’t matter!
Eventually Waters cooled off, shooting 33.1% for the Warriors overall, and was part of the mega-trade that brought Jimmy Butler to Golden State. Waters ended up with the Detroit Pistons, where he played sparingly and didn’t appear in the playoffs, before spending last season with the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs.
Now he’s doing just what Victor Wembanyama did last summer: Heading to China to further his career.
Waters will join the Beijing Shougang Ducks, a Chinese Basketball Association team best known in America for winning three titles with Stephon Marbury from 2012-15, who starred in a musical about his life called “I Am Marbury” in the middle of that run. Marbury has a bronze statue in his honor, his face on a postage stamp, and a museum dedicated to him in China.
The Ducks also have former Warrior Omari Spellman, who played alongside another former Warrior, JaVale McGee, during the end of last season in Beijing. McGee has not yet retired at age 38, splitting his time last season between the Ducks and Australia’s Illawarra Hawks.
With Waters ineligible to sign a two-way deal, there simply aren’t a lot of NBA roster spots available, even for a solid outside shooter like Waters. He has a chance to make more money and start a second career in China at age 29. Sure, there will be some culture shock, but after Waters spent most of the past five years in San Antonio and Oklahoma City, he’s probably getting a serious lifestyle upgrade.
There simply wasn’t a place for Waters on the Spurs roster with the team adding two first-round picks, Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed, Jr., while also adding Tobias Harris in free agency. Plus, the already-stocked Spurs backcourt still has David Jones Garcia on a two-way deal and newly-drafted Tennessee star Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
It was a weird summer for Waters, who was accidentally part of a Spurs controversy. The team dismissed announcer Jacob Tobey after someone (almost certainly his girlfriend) posted on Tobey’s Instagram that he had cheated on her with Loren Waters, the sister of the Spurs guard. However, after two months, the Spurs welcomed Tobey back last week.
Good luck to this Forever Warrior as he heads overseas! And be careful, Beijing Ducks broadcast team.
