On August 12, according to a revelation by media figure Zhao Tanchang, the Guangdong Southern Tigers have signed former NBA player Will Barton.
Zhao Tanchang’s post reads as follows:
According to Tanchang’s understanding, the Guangdong Southern Tigers have signed former NBA player Will Barton.
Barton is 33 years old this year, standing at 1.96 meters tall, and plays as a shooting guard/small forward. He was a second-round draft pick in 2012 and played for the Trail Blazers, Nuggets, Wizards, and Raptors during his NBA career. In the 2024 season, Barton left the NBA to join the Spanish league, and two months later, he moved to the Puerto Rican league.
In the Puerto Rican league, Barton played 18 games, averaging 31.4 minutes per game, contributing 17.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists. He averaged 3.5 free throws and made 2.9 three-pointers per game with a three-point shooting percentage of 39%. Among these, his average points and assists ranked 14th in the league, while his average number of three-pointers made ranked fourth in the league. Notably, Barton was teammates with Beikong’s foreign aid, Kelly Olynyk, in this league.
Chinese fans are more familiar with Barton from his time playing for the Nuggets, when he was a teammate of Jokic.
While Barton is no longer young, he previously maintained a consistent rotation level in the NBA. Judging from his performance in the Puerto Rican league, he still has the foundation of an attacker, especially in terms of pull-up jump shots and utilizing his own drawing power for penetration passes.
From this perspective, he can address the issue of insufficient offensive capability at Guangdong’s No. 2 position. Of course, whether he can achieve the expected results depends on his integration with the team and his specific performance in the new season.