LeBron James Supports Detroit Pistons Center Jalen Duren After Playoff Struggles

In order for the Detroit Pistons to stick around in the postseason, fourth-year center Jalen Duren needed to carry his regular season strides into the playoffs, but that critical juncture is precisely when JD’s production took a stark dropoff. 

Through 70 games, Duren dominated the paint to the tune of 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game as a dangerous lob threat and offensive rebound vacuum situated in the low post. But against the Orlando Magic in round one and the Cleveland Cavs in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, Duren was stifled at what he does best. 

Now, that is not to suggest Duren was ineffective all throughout the playoffs– he did post 15 points and 15 rebounds in game seven against the Magic to keep the Pistons alive, but the big man struggled to produce at the All-Star level he’d set prior to that point. Duren averaged 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds in his 14 playoff games this year, so he floated near double-double territory but fell short of the standard required. 

“I think defenses took some things away from him and I think that’s the biggest thing," Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon said. "A lot of the things we did during the regular season, defenses made sure he didn’t get easy baskets close to the rim. I think that was the biggest thing offensively, but he battled in both series. I don’t think it made him quit at all. He kept battling, he did a lot of things to help us win. I think if you were to ask himself if he was the best version of himself, he would say yeah, I didn’t play the basketball that I would have liked to have played. Sometimes that happens with young players in the league, but like I said before with all our guys, we are going to learn from, we’re all going to learn from the positives and the negative takeaways and we’re all going to get better from that. But saying all that, he had a lot of success this season. He got a lot better from the previous season, a lot for him to be proud of and build upon.”

With that playoff performance as the pretext, Duren now enters the offseason as a restricted free agent once he signs an offer sheet from the Pistons. All signs point to Detroit reaching an agreement with JD’s representation according to a recent statement by Trajan Langdon, so it’s more than likely that Duren will remain in the Motor City for years to come. But when analyzing his recent dip in production from the playoffs, Duren received a big vote of confidence from one of the best players in NBA history.

“Jalen Duren had a great year,” LeBron James told Steve Nash on his podcast, Mind The Game. “All-Star this year and it was his first like, I think I remember a quote from I think it was Jarrett Allen, maybe last year or the year before where they lost to I think it was the Knicks, and he said maybe the lights were a little bit too bright. You have to go through some of that at times. Some people probably forget [Allen] said that because he played so great in game seven, he’s been playing great in the postseason. Jalen Duren is young, he’s still a young talent and he’s going to have his moment where the lights probably won’t feel too bright to him and he’ll shine through. That’s all part of the progression.”

There is no player in the league who understands the ups and downs of the NBA as well as LeBron, and the NBA legend offered an important perspective for a player as young as Duren to keep in mind. At only 22 years old, Duren had already participated in three different playoff series’ spread across two playoff runs while achieving an All-Star appearance and helping his team to the top seed in the East during the latter of those productive seasons– nothing to scoff at. 

At this point, Duren has not yet hit his prime. In fact, JD finished in second place for the Most Improved Player award this year, so there is an ample amount of evidence to suggest Duren could take another leap before next season. That’s what the Pistons are counting on, and they’ll likely invest in the big man during the offseason as a foundational pillar to build around next to Cade Cunningham in what should be a busy offseason for Langdon and the rest of the Pistons brass. 

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