David Duke Jr., along with another former Big East Player Sandro Mamukelashvili (Seton Hall), has received a qualifying offer from the San Antonio Spurs. In doing so, both players have now become Restricted Free Agents. As a restricted free agent, opposing teams can offer Duke Jr. a contract, but the Spurs have the right to match said offer. If an agreement is not made with the Spurs or another team, Duke would accept the qualifying offer of $1.9 million.

Duke Jr. played on a two-way contract with the Spurs last year yet he only appeared in four games for San Antonio, averaging 6.5 ppg and shooting 50% from three. He spent the majority of last season (34 games) with the Spurs G-League affiliate, the Austin Spurs, averaging 19.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg, & 4.5 apg while hitting on 37.7% of his shots from three. The Spurs are still able to bring Duke Jr. back on a two-way contract next season.

I feel like recent Spurs draftee Stephon Castle from UConn and David Duke Jr. have very similar games with especially similar strengths and weaknesses so Duke might be a good player for Castle to get some feedback for before he’s thrown into the gauntlet of the NBA.

I’m really not sure what more Duke has to show in the G-League before getting a real shot in the NBA but he’s been absolutely dominating the competition there for a couple of seasons now and has shown that he consistently hit from deep as well. We shall see, I suppose…