Despite several months of effort, the Detroit Pistons still have not been able to re-sign 22-year old All-Star center Jalen Duren to a long-term extension
With training camp on the horizon, the Detroit Pistons still have a fair amount of uncertainty to clear before they’re prepared to start the regular season. When the Pistons entered the offseason several months back, re-signing restricted free agent Jalen Duren stood as the top agenda item for the organization, certainly a deal they’d like to complete before inking Ausar Thompson to a rookie scale extension as well.
Since Detroit has been unable to reach an agreement with Duren so far, the 22-year old All-Star center is running through the playbook of a sordid contract negotiation. After holding fruitless meetings with a pair of Western Conference teams at the start of free agency, Duren lobbied for a potential sign-and-trade to come to fruition, but the Pistons were not biting. In fact, Detroit would actively prefer not to trade Duren, so the next move for the Memphis product was to consider his qualifying offer.
If the Pistons won’t offer JD a deal in the ballpark of $40 million per year, then the big man is well within his rights to sign his qualifying offer for just under $10 million this season to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. The deadline for Duren to do so will arrive on Oct. 1, so these next few weeks will be an absolutely crucial period in the deliberation process for JD’s team and the Pistons.
According to Hunter Patterson and Sam Amick of The Athletic, Duren recently passed up on a lucrative long-term extension from the Pistons, one that points to a significant gap in compensation between the two sides. Detroit had offered a five-year deal worth around $190 million, but Duren is angling for well over $200 million if he’s going to sign for five seasons.
Since Pistons President of Basketball Operations Trajan Langdon made a series of trades during the summer, Detroit is in a sound financial position with room to spare before reaching the luxury tax. However, Langdon needs to balance Duren’s deal with an upcoming extension for Thompson as well, so there are several moving pieces here in the lead up to training camp.
As for the rest of the Pistons, Cade Cunningham sparked a players-led mini-camp out in San Diego recently to sharpen up his skills and develop some chemistry with the new members of Detroit’s squad, but Duren was not in attendance for those series of workouts. Despite that absence, the Pistons frontcourt is going to have a different balance this season if and when Duren signs his extension after Isaiah Stewart was traded to the Memphis Grizzlies during the offseason.
Without Beef Stew patrolling the paint, Paul Reed received a promotion to the No. 2 center spot in Motown with a position battle on the verge of breaking out between Tolu Smith and Ugonna Onyenso for the third-string role. Duren is still expected to return to the Pistons whether he signs his qualifying offer or a long-term extension, so there still should be some continuity in the low post for Detroit this season.
