If Jalen Duren accepts his qualifying offer from the Detroit Pistons and becomes a free agent the next summer, then the Sacramento Kings could wind up in the race for his services in the offseason
For each day that passes without Jalen Duren reaching a long-term agreement with the Detroit Pistons, this 22-year old All-Star center becomes more and more likely to accept his qualifying offer. That is precisely what Duren’s representation would like the Pistons to believe is a real possibility since they’re unhappy with the contract offers that JD has received so far, but this discrepancy is about to come to a head soon.
Since Oct. 1 is the deadline for restricted free agents to accept their qualifying offer, the Pistons will soon find out just how serious Duren has been through the negotiations. If JD accepts his qualifying offer, then the All-NBA Third Team player would earn slightly less than $10 million next season, which is far, far below his market value and what the Pistons are offering him long-term. However, Duren is of the mindset that he’s worth even more than Detroit has put forth up to this point and sees this as a prime opportunity to cash in on his career year.
If Duren takes the qualifying offer, his relationship with the Detroit organization would be on the thinnest of ice, and he’d be set to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. In most circumstances, that would mark the end of Duren’s time in the Motor City after such a tenuous negotiation process this summer, and the big man already has an idea of who could be interested in his services next offseason.
A few months back, the Sacramento Kings held a meeting with Duren on the first day of free agency to see if there was a deal to be had, but that potential landing spot obviously did not come to fruition. Despite that water-testing measure, the Kings would still have interest in adding Duren to their roster if he were to hit unrestricted free agency next offseason according to The Athletic.
Now, in order to make that a reality, the Kings would have to find a way off of Domantas Sabonis’ contract, so that’s one hurdle Sacramento would need to clear in order for the deal to make sense. At the moment, the Kings are $53.8 million over the cap for the 2026-27 campaign, but they’re still over $7 million below the first apron and $20 million below the second apron. Sabonis is set to make $45.4 million next season, which would account for 27.57% of the Kings’ cap space overall.
The Pistons have $46 million worth of wiggle room before they’d run into the luxury tax, so Detroit has more than enough money set aside to get a deal done with Duren before moving on to Ausar Thompson’s rookie scale extension.
The Kings, on the other hand, view Duren as a younger, more talented upgrade on Sabonis for roughly the same cost, so it makes sense why the still-rebuilding organization would like to land Duren as one of the pillars of their climb. Duren still has three more weeks to decide whether or not he’s going to take his qualifying offer, and that will add an ample amount of clarity to what the Pistons and potentially the Kings rosters will look like for years to come.
