What is going on with Jalen Duren and the Pistons?

Jalen Duren remains a free agent. The restricted free agent has a 5yr/$200 million deal in front of him and he has yet to put pen to paper. With an October 1st deadline for Duren to sign the qualifying offer, there is a real chance that Duren does just that. Why Duren should take the money, why he shouldn’t sign the QO, how realistic is a sign and trade and what does the Pistons season look like.

After an awesome regular season, Jalen Duren put together a bad postseason and it certainly has cost him some money. Duren is eligible to sign a 5yr/$287 million supermax deal right now and the Pistons haven’t offered it yet and they won’t offer it. They shouldn’t, the threat of losing Duren isn’t worth paying him $57.4 million per year. He is a really good center but not a game changing center. However, he is really important to their team. The pick and roll with Cade Cunningham is the best action the Pistons have and losing that would be a massive blow to their offense. With the loss of Tobias Harris, the Pistons cannot afford to lose another key part of said offense. With that said, Duren should take the money Detroit is offering him because he is not a max level player and no team should be paying him max dollars. He has a good partnership with Cade Cunningham, he is a key part of a really good team in Detroit and the Pistons are offering him $40 million per year. That is a good deal for him to walk into. I am sure his feelings are hurt but let’s not lose sight of signing a $200 million contract and take the money.

There is a world where Duren takes the qualifying offer by Thursday night and becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer. That would be too risky for my blood. First off, the QO is a 1yr/$9 million deal, by taking it he’d be leaving $191 million on the table, which would be insane. We think he will have big offers next summer but that isn’t promised, ask Nerlens Noel, Rodney Hood or Cam Thomas about how signing a qualifying offer went for them. Duren is better than all of those players but something like a major injury or a bad season following a bad playoff run could happen and then that $200 million is much less. Alperen Sengun signed a $185 million deal a few summers ago and while their games are very different, Duren is on about the same level as a player that Sengun is so this is a fair deal. There are probably some hurt feelings here, and I am sure Ausar Thompson getting paid didn’t help, but I really hope Duren and his agent Chafie Fields don’t let hurt feelings get in the way of a massive payday.

I also think a sign and trade is unrealistic. If I was Trajan Langdon, I would have zero interest in either an Anthony Davis deal with the Wizards or a Domantas Sabonis deal with the Kings. Milwaukee is a team that could make sense but I also would not want Myles Turner and Tyler Herro also needs a new contract so that would just put the Pistons in the same spot they are in right now. I am sure that there are teams that would love to acquire Jalen Duren but I am struggling to find a deal that makes sense for the Pistons.

The Pistons need Duren on their team for next season. They traded Isaiah Stewart to the Grizzlies this summer, leaving Paul Reed as the only true center left on the roster. That is why Duren has leverage here and that is why he has a $200 million offer on the table. Let’s assume that he is on the team, as I talked about last week that east is really competitive but the Pistons should be a playoff team. They won 60 games last year and lost a Game 7 in round 2 on their home floor, they should have a high enough floor to be a top 6 team. This is a really good team with a defense that should be among the best in the league. I thought the John Collins move was weird but they improved their shooting by acquiring Isaiah Joe from the Thunder, which they badly needed to do. I don’t expect the Pistons to win the Eastern Conference this season but this is a very good team that needs their center. The Pistons will go as Cade Cunningham goes and Jalen Duren is vital for maximizing Cunningham. Therefore, they need to sign Duren, hence the reason they made a real offer that Duren should take but he has yet to do so. With the deadline to sign the qualifying offer being tomorrow (as of the day of this publishing) we could get a resolution soon but this could also go on for a while.