The first thought that came to my head when I heard of Jalen Duren's latest threat to accept the qualifying offer was "GO FOR IT."
Maybe I'm just sick of hearing about this, or maybe I think it's a bit tone deaf given the current economic climate or maybe I'm just sick of seeing numbers that most people couldn't imagine in their wildest dreams.
Whether Duren's threat of the qualifying offer is hollow or not, the Pistons have to be prepared for any outcome, including him doing something that astronomically stupid.
With only a little over two weeks before training camp, this saga will come to a natural conclusion eventually, but regardless of the outcome, the Pistons need a plan in place and they essentially have two options.
The Pistons could trade Jalen Duren immediately
On one hand, the idea of having the starting center making less than $10 million next season is an appealing one, but on the other, it's a disaster.
The last thing the Pistons want is to go into next season with Duren on an expiring contract and looking over his shoulder waiting to get traded. It will affect the chemistry both on and off the court, so for me, if Dure accepts the QO, I'm trading him as soon as a find a viable offer.
It wouldn't be great for the Pistons to have to shift gears this late in the offseason, but it would be worse to go into the season with an unhappy player who you know isn't going to be around for the long term.
This is the kind of drama that can wreck a team quickly, so the Pistons should want no part of it and should have some teams on speed dial of they actually think Duren will carry through on his threat of the QO.
The Pistons could wait it out and deal him at the deadline
This seems like a less ideal solution to me, as you'd still have an unhappy starting center going through the motions until he was traded.
The alternative to trading him immediatey would be to wait until the trade deadline and hope he doesn't get hurt or suffer a setback in that time. The Pistons wouldn't have much leverage here, as teams would know they wanted to deal Duren before losing him for nothing, so it would put Detroit in a tough spot.
The Pistons have options if Duren want to drag this out and play hardball, but none of them are great and it would put them in an uncomfortable position with training camp right around the corner.
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