AFAIK, the Asian player rule doesn't apply to naturalised Asians (eg Quincy Douby, Andre Blatche, Ricardo Ratliff, Nick Fazekas) or any other foreign raised Asians with mixed heritage especially including Standhardinger, Wright, Jason Brickman and Stanley Pringle among many others....If Jordan Clarkson ever expresses an interest in the (A)NBL, would an Asian player exception be made for him?
From a pure $$ perspective, and has been discussed several times before Zhou Qi and Abudushalamu Abudurexiti wouldn't play on NBL money is as... Other full Asian prospects of interest in the same boat include Japan's Yuta Watanabe, Yudai Baba (was in the Mavericks mini-camp), Lebanon's Wael Aralkji, a Goran Dragic style lefty guard, in addition to a gamut of South Koreans and Iranians.
A point to consider are that (again AFAIK), the Asian/Oceania player rule was changed to only include player's from select Asian countries (Iran and Lebanon are excluded, this rule directly affected Guam international Tai Wesley).
To stimulate real debate here, this set up could be workable by taking a leaf out of the A-League's book who top of a club's salary to overseas marquees with their own contribution fund. Perhaps a combination of club payments, league contributions and personal sponsors (perhaps from the country of origen of said player- eg Huawei for Chinese players) would move the needle somewhat.
Finally, In many cases, we probably also underestimate the transition not just from a playing, but a living perspective to the (A)NBL. Some people here criticised Brisbane's handling of Hiejima, this article may provide some perspective.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2019/01/15/basketball/b-league/makoto-hiejima-never-found-comfort-zone-brisbane-bullets/#.XTlaWOgzbIU