David Duke Jr. made the most of his time in Brooklyn, and now he’ll have to do the same out on Long Island.
After appearing 14 games with the Brooklyn Nets, Duke was back with their G League affiliate on Sunday afternoon. Brooklyn assigned Duke to Long Island on Saturday and he was in the lineup for their game against the G League Ignite on Sunday at the Nassau Coliseum.
Duke put up 14 points on 4-of-16 shooting and played 36 minutes of the Long Island Nets’ 111-99 win. He also had 9 rebounds and 4 assists, but it was far from his best performance.
For the two-way player, it took a little bit of time to reacclimate himself.
“Definitely an adjustment for sure,” Duke told NetsDaily. “From Brooklyn to Long Island, it’s a different style of play. Also, the spacing’s just a little different. Overall, it definitely is different.”
Duke had been a part of the Nets road trip, but didn’t appear in the first two games in Cleveland or Washington. He took the floor for just 1:09 in Brooklyn’s win over San Antonio on Friday.
During his stint with Brooklyn, Duke had 5.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists. He started in seven games in the NBA, which included starting in four consecutive contests in early January.
Long Island head coach Adam Caporn figured there would be some time needed to get used to his new teammates, and that has been planned for.
“We’re aligned very tightly with Brooklyn with our terminology, system,” Caporn said. “Our plans for (David) Duke and the work we do with him, there may be some moments that we’re still finding our feet, but our message to him is just be excited and have some fun. If you need to know something, ask. If you need something talk to your teammates, but our job is to help him fit in. Excited to have him back.”
