9:32am: Mudiay’s one-year deal is worth $1.2MM, a source tells Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link). He’s nonetheless carrying a significant amount of insurance to hedge against future NBA earnings, which stand to be much greater, Wojnarowski also tweets.

8:50am: Highly touted 2015 NBA draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay will spend the 2014/15 season in China after signing with Guangdong of the Chinese Basketball Association, the team announced (translation via Evan Wang of Hupu.com on Twitter). Mudiay recently decided to forgo what would have been his freshman season at Southern Methodist University to pursue professional opportunities abroad.

The 6’5″ point guard is the No. 2 prospect for next year’s draft in Chad Ford’s ESPN.com rankings, and he’s No. 3 in the 2015 mock draft that Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress put together. He’ll follow a path that Brandon Jennings and others have traveled as premiere high school prospects who played international pro ball rather than attend college. Mudiay can’t play in the NBA this season because the league requires that players from the U.S. be at least one year removed from high school.

The move shows the growing influence of the Chinese league, which is rivaling Europe, long the primary hub of basketball outside North America, as a draw for the top international talent. Several NBA veterans have dotted Chinese rosters in recent years, so it seems as though Mudiay will get a taste of the competition to come once he heads to the NBA.