The Detroit Pistons still haven’t re-signed Jalen Duren just yet, and there’s only a few ways for this situation to play out
Now over two months into their offseason, the Detroit Pistons still have a very big item on their to-do list when it comes to re-signing Jalen Duren. At 22 years old, Duren is a restricted free agent coming off a career year and an All-Star season at the very tail end of his rookie deal, so conventional wisdom would lead one to believe that all the chips would be in JD’s favor.
However, Duren had a big slump in the playoffs against the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers, and the market is not saturated with enough teams that could safely absorb the cap space of a max contract deal, so leverage has actually shifted away from Duren and back towards the Pistons. As a result, the two sides are entrenched in a proverbial staring contest to see who blinks first.
Duren has the option to accept his qualifying offer from the Pistons, which would pay the big men slightly less than $10 million this year before ensuring unrestricted free agency next summer, but that is obviously a big gamble to take. Duren would need to bank on staying healthy and producing at a high level all season long once again, so it’s far from a guarantee that he’d find himself in a similar position 12 months from now.
On the other hand, the Pistons do not necessarily want to damage their relationship with a young All-NBA Third Team center when they could lock him up long-term this offseason with a suitable, well-paying offer slightly below max level, so the qualifying offer should be viewed as a last resort for both sides. For context, a max deal at 25% of the cap would come in just over $40 million per season.
”I don’t know if he’s going to take a qualifying offer,” ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill said. “It’s very rare someone passes up $180 million guaranteed to take nine. Sometimes with a player like that, he hears Boston was going to offer me this and Sacramento was going to offer me this, over $200 million if they were to work out the sign-and-trade and they get that in their head and they can’t get it out.”
But since the Pistons are not required to report back for training camp until at least mid-September, the team still has a bit of time to work out a deal with the Memphis product. After all, Detroit stuck with JD through his playoff struggles a couple months back, and we’ll find out soon enough whether Duren plans to stick around in Motown on a long-term basis.
”I’m very curious for a guy who’s still very young, felt like he’d done enough in the regular season to warrant getting quote unquote his money, how that’s going to play moving forward,” Goodwill said. “He’s a professional. He shows up. He works hard, all that stuff. Nobody takes any of that away from him. I just wonder where human nature comes in where your feelings are hurt.”
As it stands, Duren is the biggest name that’s still on the market right now except for James Harden, but both players are ultimately expected to reunite with their Central Division squads even though the timing of those moves is still very much up in the air.
