Former Grizzlies shooting guard Jamaal Franklin has signed a two-month deal with the Zhejiang Guangsha Lions of the Chinese Basketball Association, as he tells Mark Zeigler of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Chema de Lucas of Gigantes del Basket was the first to report that the 41st overall pick from 2013 was headed to China (Twitter link; translation via HoopsHype). Franklin will serve as a replacement for Jonathan Gibson, an injured Lions guard. It’s unclear just how much Franklin will make as part of the arrangement.
Franklin, 23, worked out for the Spurs shortly after the Grizzlies waived him at the end of August, and it appears as though he auditioned for the Wizards, too. The Brian Elfus client indicated to Zeigler that he had opportunities to join an NBA team for camp on a non-guaranteed deal but decided against doing so for financial reasons. Franklin saw limited action this past season with Memphis, racking up nearly three times as many total minutes on D-League assignment as he saw in the NBA. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.1 rebounds in 7.7 minutes per game across 21 NBA appearances. Still, he displayed a better long-range shooting stroke than he demonstrated in college at San Diego State, nailing 38.2% of his three-point attempts in the NBA and the D-League combined.
Memphis used the stretch provision to reduce Franklin’s guaranteed minimum salary for this season to just $163,296. Since the value of his Chinese deal is unknown, it’s not clear whether it’ll be enough to trigger the right of set-off to further reduce the amount the Grizzlies owe him.