The Perth Wildcats of Australia’s National Basketball League are in advanced talks on a potential deal for free agent combo guard David Duke Jr., according to Olgun Uluc of ESPN, who reports that a contract for Duke would cover the rest of the 2025/26 season.
The Wildcats have been in the market for a replacement for Mason Jones, another former NBA guard whom the team parted ways with last week after he got off to a slow start.
Duke, who was in camp with the Suns until being cut last week, has appeared in NBA games in each of the past four seasons. In 55 total outings for Brooklyn and San Antonio from 2021-25, he has averaged 4.2 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 0.9 assists in 11.9 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .417/.262/.767.
The 26-year-old has been more productive in the G League, averaging 16.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and 4.0 APG in 42 games for the Austin Spurs last season after putting up more than 20 PPG in each of the two previous years.
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Devon Henderson and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic pass along some of the most interesting comments made by NBA commissioner Adam Silver during his media rounds prior to the start of the 2025/26 season, including his latest remarks on potential expansion and the All-Star format. Most notably, given today’s big news, Silver told Chris Mannix of SI.com this week that the league continues to talk to betting companies about potentially reducing the range of prop bets available to gamblers.
- The National Basketball Players Association issued the following statement in the wake of the arrests of Terry Rozier, Chauncey Billups, and Damon Jones on Thursday (Twitter link): “The integrity of the game is paramount to NBA players, but so is the presumption of innocence, and both are hindered when player popularity is misused to gain attention. We will ensure our members are protected and afforded their due process rights through this process.”
- The disappearance of incentives and bonuses in NBA contracts has had an impact on rookie scale extensions, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. As Hollinger explains, including likely and/or unlikely incentives in a deal used to be an effective way to bridge the gap between the contract a player was seeking and the one his team was willing to pay. However, because they count against the aprons, teams have essentially stopped handing them out — not a single veteran contract signed this offseason included incentives. In Hollinger’s view, players like Tari Eason, Bennedict Mathurin, and Mark Williams would have been more likely to work out deals under the previous CBA, when those bonuses were more common.
- Veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein has joined Amazon Prime Video’s NBA coverage for the 2025/26 season, reports Ryan Glasspiegel of Front Office Sports. According to Glasspiegel, Stein won’t have an on-air role — he’ll be working behind the scenes and will be responsible for making sure that facts and figures are “journalistically sound” before they’re used by the studio team or game announcers. Amazon previously hired Chris Haynes as its league insider and Marcus Thompson of The Athletic to report feature stories.
What does that NBAPA statement even mean? Its all defensive, and I dont even get what theyre mad about? Its like yup it makes the news when the FBI arrest a couple player/coach. Are they mad we know about public record arrests?
ChatGPT type statement.
I welcome people to read on ESPN the transcript of David Stern’s press conference when Tim Donaghy was first investigated and I think you should compare that to this statement and Silver’s inevitable press conference on this scandal. The league needs to show strong and clear leadership instead of this weak lawyer approved messaging.
Anything short of a clear condemnation with the promise of severe punishment for anyone involved in gambling and a promise to the public that they will do whatever it takes to root out all these gambling issues to protect the integrity of the game is not enough. Silver needs to channel Goodell and Stern here or resign and let a proper commissioner do it.
> Silver needs to channel Goodell and Stern here or
> resign and let a proper commissioner do it.
@BlackAce57, I agree that decisive action is needed, but I’m more interested in your implication that Silver has a reputation for failing to protect the integrity of the game in the past.
You may be right that Silver deserves such a reputation, but I see no evidence that media, owners, or fans at large see Silver that way. (This is, after all, the Commissioner that acted in 2 weeks to force Donald Sterling to sell his team.) That’s why I don’t believe he’d resign or feel undue pressure.
That said, IMO, the “soft” treatment Silver has given to the Clippers to this point reduces his wiggle room on addressing this gambling mess.