Signing with the Chinese league does not necessarily end his N.B.A. career. The C.B.A. season ends in March, allowing him time to sign a late-season contract with an N.B.A. team in need of a veteran.

But it’s a clear indication that N.B.A. teams had little interest in a 31-year-old guard who has gradually seen his role reduced since injuries sapped him of his once-electric athleticism. After the Hawks waived him, at his request, in February, he played 18.8 minutes per game for the Raptors, averaging 7 points and 2.2 assists. Playing behind Kyle Lowry and Fred VanVleet, he was removed from the playoff rotation.

In recent months, he made clear he did not want to give up on the N.B.A.

“In English there’s a saying and it says once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up,” he said during a speech in Taiwan in July. “But rock bottom just seems to keep getting more and more rock bottom for me. So, free agency has been tough. Because I feel like in some ways the N.B.A.’s kind of given up on me.”

It’s not the first time N.B.A. teams decided he couldn’t play. Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, said that he and others mistakenly saw the Harvard graduate as unathletic when they decided not to draft him, despite objective data that indicated otherwise.