4:10pm: The Nets have officially announced that they’ve converted Duke’s contract to a two-way deal and waived Cacok, issuing a pair of press releases to confirm the moves. The team’s roster is now set for the regular season.
2:40pm: The Nets will sign David Duke Jr. to a two-way contract, rewarding him for his impressive play during training camp, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link).
The signing means that 25-year-old Devontae Cacok will likely be waived, as the two players were competing for a spot in training camp. Cacok’s G League rights were acquired by Long Island on Friday, signaling that he may end up as a returning-rights player for the Nets’ NBAGL affiliate after he’s cut.
In addition, the move signals that neither of Brooklyn’s two unsigned draft picks, Marcus Zegarowski and RaiQuan Gray, will be receiving a two-way deal, with Duke and second-rounder Kessler Edwards occupying those spots. Zegarowski and Gray, who were drafted 49th and 59th overall, respectively, could end up signing G League contracts and reporting to Long Island while Brooklyn retains their NBA rights.
Duke, 22, went undrafted in July and signed an Exhibit 10 deal with Brooklyn in August. He averaged 16.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game at Providence in 2020/21.
Nets sign DUKE !!
That’s about the size of it, kid !!
should of been drafted.
BKN should lose NBA rights to MZ and Gray, regardless of what G-league team they sign with. Neither was signed at all, even to a preseason camp contract (where 20 are permitted). I don’t care what they agreed to, if anything, in rejecting their tender. The spirit of the CBA roster rules is that a team can control no more than 17 players within their organization. Side agreements shouldn’t override that, just as they can’t override the salary cap.
Wow you dont know anything about the CBA and draft rights control. Somewhere Aaron White is reading this in disbelief.
LOL. Actually, I forgot, in the last second, more than you or anyone who’ll ever speak with you will ever know. For good reason.
There would be no “draft and stash” if this were true. I believe once they’re signed the team no longer retains draft rights. Those draft rights are often trade chips.
Nope. In all sports, a team losses its draft rights to any drafted player if it doesn’t make him a qualified contract offer (the NBA calls this a required tender) within a short period after the draft. Just common sense (to most anyway); otherwise a team could draft a guy and keep him from playing the sport by not offering a contract.
A draft and stash is a player already under contract with a team in a foreign league with which the NBA has a mutual recognition agreement, so the drafting team’s obligation to offer a contract has to be tolled until the player’s foreign league contract is terminated. At that point, the same rules apply.
For 2nd round picks, the required tender and 2wc rules provide teams some leverage to compel the player to refuse the required tender and take a 2wc. But Nets didn’t sign these two guys at all. I’m sure the Nets got these players to agree to sit at home (they’d have to), and the Nets did nothing wrong by the letter of the rules. But the roster limit rules are not merely about what a team and its draftees might amicably work out, they are mandatory for all teams for the benefit of the other teams. The Nets should have no greater rights than if they signed the guys to a required tender contract (non-guaranteed) and then waived them. In effect, that’s what they’ve done.
Bad for the Nets, but isn’t that good for the players?
Maybe the Nets thought Duke was picked already… or realized quickly they made a mistake. Maybe they went by a negative rumor which was disproved soon after the draft.
lol Maybe someone confused him with the more famous David Duke! Not good in the NBA.
Duke was a good pickup. Definitely should have been drafted. He’ll be in NBA soon enough.
Good predraft advocacy.