Increasing basement ceiling height by updating ducting

Hello.

My basement has 7' floor to ceiling joist, but the length of ducting supplying the western side of the house with airflow is 12" tall running along the load-bearing beam forming the spine of the house.

I want to finish my basement, but the fact that you would need to duck under the ducting to get to the northern side of the basement because the ducting takes up so much vertical spacing has put a full stop on this project. Is there a way to reduce the height of this ducting, even for a run as short as 6" just so people who are 6' or taller don't need to duck to reach my pool table? I've seen shorter ducting that is used between wall frames for stuff like oven vents, would that be viable with the proper adapters?

Thanks ahead of time

submitted by /u/dino82
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