Jalen Duren’s future with Pistons in doubt as extension talks stall: Sources
All-NBA forward Jalen Duren was underwhelmed by the Detroit Pistons’ initial offer in restricted free agency and is planning to explore sign-and-trade scenarios when they are permitted on Tuesday, league sources told The Athletic.
The negotiation between the 22-year-old and the Pistons was widely expected to be challenging, as he had an elite regular season that helped Detroit finish with the Eastern Conference’s best record (60-22) only to struggle mightily in the playoffs en route to the team’s second-round loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yet because he was selected to the All-NBA third team, Duren is eligible for a five-year, $287.1 million extension that would account for 30 percent of the Pistons’ salary cap.
League sources say the gap between the two sides is large enough that Duren is now considering ways to land elsewhere, with the sign-and-trade route deemed preferable to signing an offer sheet with another team that the Pistons could, and likely would, match. And with some of the game’s best players potentially available this summer, including the Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown and the LA Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard, the question now becomes whether the Pistons might be willing to engage in those sorts of scenarios when that time comes.
There is still time for Duren and the Pistons to close the gap in negotiations and strike a deal, but the discussion of his value is surely complicated by the contrast between his production in the regular season and postseason. He averaged 19.5 points (while taking 11.5 shots per game and shooting 65 percent overall) and 10 rebounds in 70 games, while finishing sixth in the league in Player Impact Estimate (behind Nikola Jokić, Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Dončić and Leonard). The Pistons’ regular-season record was their best since the 2005-06 season, when they went 64-18. Yet in 14 playoff games against the Orlando Magic and the Cavaliers, Duren averaged just 10.2 points (while taking 7.8 shots per and shooting 51.4 percent) and 8.5 rebounds (with a PIE of 8.7).
The Pistons, meanwhile, are known to be on the market for a significant roster upgrade this summer. League sources say they had serious interest in Austin Reaves before he re-signed with the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, and they’ve also been tied to Brown, Leonard and Tyler Herro (who was traded from the Miami Heat to the Milwaukee Bucks in the Giannis Antetokounmpo deal). Detroit has plenty of other in-house business to tend to as well, as 23-year-old, first-team All-Defense selection Ausar Thompson is eligible for an extension that could top out at five years and a combined $162 million.
“Obviously, JD and AT will be expensive,” Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon told reporters about Duren and Thompson during a May 19 news conference. “Once that happens, the optionality decreases.
“This isn’t a one-year thing. The thing I’ve always said is ‘sustainability’ in terms of being competitive. We have to keep that in mind as well. Not just say, ‘OK, we’re going to do this next year just because of (our success this year). …It also impacts our future planning, so we’re going to be very mindful of that.”
The Pistons’ offseason business hardly ends there. Veteran forward Tobias Harris, the 33-year-old who was their second-leading scorer in the playoffs, is an unrestricted free agent. Veteran forward Duncan Robinson, who was third in playoff scoring, could be waived to create salary cap space (only $2 million of his $15.9 million salary for next season is guaranteed). The Pistons traded big man Isaiah Stewart to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday in exchange for three second-round picks.