Lester Hudson is expected to return to play for Liaoning of the Chinese Basketball Association, assuming he clears waivers from the Clippers, tweets Nick Bedard of Basketball Buddha. The team has yet to officially announce Hudson’s release, but a league executive told Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times that the Clippers would waive the point guard today, the last day for them to do so without guaranteeing his full minimum salary for 2015/16.
Hudson spent much of this past season with Liaoning before joining the Clippers for the stretch run. He averaged 31.2 points per game for Liaoning and led the CBA with 3.1 steals per contest. He’d played in China in each of the three seasons since 2011/12, the last in which he’d seen NBA action prior to his time with the Clippers this spring.
Most Hoops Rumors readers predicted that Hudson would end up outside the NBA for this coming season. The early guarantee date that his agents at Priority Sports negotiated with the Clippers affords Hudson the likelihood of free agency before opportunities dry up both stateside and abroad. Any NBA team could claim him using the minimum-salary exception and keep him from returning overseas, but because of the full guarantee that would kick in for him if a team did that, it seems likely that he’ll pass through waivers.