Anonymous
Years ago

Kings sign Josh Duinker

On the heels of yesterday's announcement that Angus Brandt had joined the Sydney Kings, the club has now announced the signing of power forward/centre Josh Duinker to a contract for the next two National Basketball League seasons.

Duinker is another local product, coming out of the Hornsby association by way of St Pius X high school in Chatswood, giving the Kings no less than four players on the squad with close ties to Sydney basketball associations.

The 25 year old, who stands 211cm (6’11") and weighs 104kg (230lb), has played in Europe for the past two years after spending four years at NCAA Division One school Richmond University in the United States, where he helped his team make the prestigious NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011.

Duinker, who holds dual Australian-Dutch citizenship, is also a current member of the Dutch national team, and he started for Dutch club Zorg and Zekerheid Leiden in the 2014 EuroChallenge tournament, averaging an impressive 15.3 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.0 steals per game.

"I really feel Josh could be a real sleeper for us. Not many people know that much about him, but he’s got a lot of talent, he’s played in a fairly strong European league, and he has a lot of upside.”

http://www.sydneykings.com/article/id/13nwcx2bgoz5p1li1tchpzv628

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paul
Years ago

Good signing, this is a big kid who can shoot a bit, and had a couple of big games against good Euro opposition last season.

Townsville were very keen on him, good to see him back in the NBL, and allows the Kings to go for imports at SF and PG.

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Phil
Years ago

damn kings will have some size then.

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LC
Years ago

Kings are recruiting well with their new HC!

Brandt and Duinker are both 6'10+ with range to beyond the arc. They will stretch every team.

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paul
Years ago

Provided they can hit those shots at NBL level. Hopefully they can, and hopefully they can defend in the NBL speed of game too, which is always a test for big guys.

They both have talent and have reasonable height for an NBL centre so touch wood the Kings have that spot covered.

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D4444
Years ago

I'm hoping their import forward is big & athletic enough to play at PF since all the Kings bigs are on the scrawny side so while they have plenty of height, they lack muscle.

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Bear
Years ago

This is interesting, I agree the NBL is a fast league, not athletic like the NBA but just as quick if not quicker than Euroleague Basket.

That said, the Tigers (bless their soles) a year or two tried to go very big, they had your 6'11" - 7' players in spades, however it didn't quite work for them.

Not saying too many talls won't work for the Kings, just backing up on the point that they must be able to defend in transition in the NBL and then take advantage of their size and height at both ends.

I like some of the things I am reading about certain teams, being proactive and setting themselves up for next season, it could be a good one...

R.I.P Tigers :{

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Luke
Years ago

Good moves by the HC so far, now time to go for some imports or a marquare player

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Wookiee
Years ago

@Bear - Certainly agree that you don't want to be exposed on defence due to the quickness of a lot of the bigs here, but as mentioned by D4444, the bigs we've got aren't really bulky and I think the big problem with the Tiggers was that they had Nevill AND Helliwell (plus Burston?) who were both fairly bulky bigs, not especially mobile (Helliwell especially) whereas the current Kings line up will have 2x 6'10/11 guys and then Garlepp at 6'8 who covered at the 5 when AJ got in foul trouble, so really with the new guys we've got and both being able to hopefully earn decent minutes (Brandt was pretty good when he got a decent stretch in the SinoAus series) it will free Garlepp to not have to be an undersized 5 and can split time with Ellis who is still sort of in positional limbo even though at 6'8 we were sort of hoping that he'd be able to cover the bigger opposition 3s as well but doesn't seem quick enough atm...

Get two high quality imports with the (hopefully) leftover cash, and it could be looking good...

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Hoops

Kings sign Josh Duinker

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