After previously reporting that David Duke Jr. was in advanced negotiations with the Perth Wilcats, ESPN’s Olgun Uluc now hears from multiple sources that the free agent guard has officially signed a contract to join the Australian team for the remainder of the 2025/26 season (Twitter link).
The Wildcats, who compete in Australia’s National Basketball League, 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 has spent parts of each of the past four seasons in the NBA, playing a total of 55 regular season games with the Nets and Spurs, mostly on two-way contracts. He holds career averages of 4.2 points and 2.0 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game, with a shooting line of .417/.262/.767.
The 26-year-old combo guard was on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 10 deal with Phoenix for training camp and the 2025 preseason, but was released last Friday.
While Duke’s NBA role has been pretty modest to this point in his career, he has been more productive at the G League level, including averaging 20-plus points per game during the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons. In 42 contests (31.6 MPG) with the Austin Spurs last season, the Providence, Rhode Island native averaged 16.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 4.0 APG and 1.6 SPG on .410/.306/.719 shooting.
Duke is the third veteran NBA guard to head overseas on Thursday, joining Spencer Dinwiddie (Bayern Munich) and Jared Butler (Crvena Zvezda).
I would consider a name change.