Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far
Detroit Pistons: 3 huge overreactions from Summer League so far
Jalen Duren is going to be better than Jaden Ivey!
If you watched the first two Summer League games and didn’t know anything about any of the players involved, you might think that Jalen Duren was the Pistons’ best player.
Duren has looked very good, averaging 20 per game to lead the team in scoring while hauling down nine rebounds. He’s flashed some new elements to his game, namely a pull-up mid-range jumper that he hit a couple of times.
Even though the offseason is young, it appears that Duren, who is still just 19-years-old, has already improved.
Jaden Ivey played a couple of sloppy, turnover-riddled games that pretty much looked like last season. He took some ill-advised shots, forced things a few times and scored an inefficient 18 per game on 17 shots.
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Duren shot 68 percent from the field, knocked down one of his two 3-point shots and outscored Ivey on fewer attempts.
But let’s pump the brakes here.
Duren has looked better on offense, and has always been a handful around the rim, but he still has a long way to go on defense, and that’s the area where he needs to make the biggest impact and improvement next season.
Ivey also racked up seven assists per game in the first two, was orchestrating an offense of guys who have barely played together and had spurts where he was definitely the best player on the floor. Ivey is going to be fine, as he’ll be sharing the ball handling duties with Cade Cunningham and will not be playing the same featured role that he is in Summer League.
Duren also isn’t going to be shooting many 3-pointers (I hope) or pulling up from the mid-range, so as nice as those things are to see, we aren’t going to be seeing them much in real games, at least not right away.
The good news is the Detroit Pistons appear to have two very good players from the same draft, but there is a chance that Duren becomes the more impactful over time. I’d still bet on Ivey, but it’s good if there’s an argument.