Lindy Waters III Signs with Beijing Ducks for CBA Opportunity

Lindy Waters III is heading east, and this time it’s not to another NBA city.

After five seasons of fighting for minutes and contracts across the league, the former San Antonio Spurs wing has signed with the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association, taking his career overseas after the Spurs declined to bring him back this offseason. The move was first reported by Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints.

For Waters, it marks a clear break from the fringes of NBA rotations and a chance to become a featured piece in one of the world’s most competitive international leagues. In Beijing, he’ll link up with fellow former NBA forward JaKarr Sampson on a Ducks team that expects to contend.

Last season, the Ducks finished fourth in the CBA at 29–13 and pushed their way to the semifinals before bowing out to the eventual champions, the Shanghai Sharks. They’re not signing Waters to make up the numbers. They’re signing him to help close that gap.

From Undrafted to a Global Route

Waters’ path has never been straightforward.

After four seasons at Oklahoma State, he went undrafted in 2020 and started his pro journey with the Enid Outlaws of The Basketball League. From there, he earned a shot with the Oklahoma City Thunder, carving out a role as a floor-spacing wing who could slide between the NBA and the G League.

He spent his first three NBA seasons in the Thunder system, splitting time with the Oklahoma City Blue. Across 104 games for the Thunder, he averaged 5.3 points and 1.8 rebounds, the kind of production that keeps a player in the conversation but rarely locks in his future.

Golden State came calling in the summer of 2024. With the Warriors, Waters found a slightly bigger platform: 38 games, nine starts, and averages of 5.5 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists. He showed he could hold his own in a motion-heavy offense, knock down shots, and survive defensively.

Then came the trade.

Midway through the 2024–25 season, Waters was shipped to the Detroit Pistons as part of the sprawling five-team deal headlined by Jimmy Butler. In Detroit, his role shrank again. Fourteen games, 3.4 points, 1.0 rebound. Another stop, another reset.

San Antonio picked him up last summer, offering a place on a team with serious ambitions. Waters suited up in 40 regular-season games for the Spurs, almost exclusively off the bench, averaging 2.4 points in 7.1 minutes. He added nine postseason appearances as San Antonio surged all the way to the 2026 NBA Finals, contributing in short bursts and spot minutes, posting 1.7 points in 3.8 minutes per game.

He was part of it, but never central to it. Now, in Beijing, he has the chance to be more than a rotation option.

Spurs Stay the Course

Waters’ departure is a footnote to a Spurs offseason defined by stability at the top and targeted tweaks around the edges.

San Antonio’s headline move came where it always had to: Victor Wembanyama. The franchise locked in its generational centerpiece on a five-year, $252 million extension, a deal that cements the 7-foot-4 star as the face of the organization for the long haul.

The Spurs also kept key role players in the fold, handing new contracts to Harrison Barnes, Julian Champagnie and Jordan McLaughlin. The message was clear: the core that reached the Finals deserved continuity, not a teardown.

They did address their most obvious need. Power forward had been circled as the position to upgrade, and San Antonio moved quickly to bring in veteran Tobias Harris on a two-year deal. Harris is expected to push Champagnie hard for the starting spot, adding scoring versatility and playoff experience to a frontcourt built around Wembanyama.

On draft night, the Spurs continued to stockpile young talent. They used first-round picks on Jayden Quaintance and Tarris Reed Jr., then added Ja’Kobi Gillespie and Maliq Brown in the second round, deepening a pipeline that already looks one of the league’s strongest.

Waters won’t be part of that next chapter. His story shifts to Beijing now, to packed CBA arenas, long road trips across China, and a new kind of pressure: not just to survive in a rotation, but to lead.

For a player who has spent his career on the margins of the NBA, that might be exactly the challenge he’s been waiting for.