The Pistons' offseason comes down to two numbers

The Detroit Pistons have had a relatively quiet offseason that has drawn middling grades from pundits around the league. 

Detroit improved their 3-point shooting, but didn’t get a second creator or scorer, and their most important business is still outstanding, as they haven’t signed Jalen Duren or gotten an early extension for Ausar Thompson. 

The Pistons want to get the Duren deal finished first and then move onto Thompson, and the numbers they land on will play a huge role in the future trajectory of the team. 

The Pistons have to keep the numbers as low as possible 

As good as Duren and Thompson were last season, there are still real questions about the ceiling of a team built around the two of them and Cade Cunningham. 

If the Pistons give max or near-max deals to Duren and Thompson, they will be locked into that trio with little wiggle room on the cap sheet to add another top-end talent without going deep into the tax. 

If you believe in this trio as a championship foundation, great, but if you are one of the many who believe there needs to be another star to complement the three, then the numbers for Duren and Thompson’s next contracts matter a great deal. 

Obviously, it would be great if both guys would take team-friendly deals as Victor Wembanyama just did, but they have no reason to given the circumstances, which is why we are seeing the current standoff with Duren. 

But if the Pistons can get them both signed to reasonable numbers, which in both cases would be anything close to $30 million annually, it will help keep their options open to add more talent. 

Trades, breaking up the core and the ticking clock 

Signing Duren and Thompson doesn’t necessarily lock the Pistons into them for the long term, as both players would have huge trade value if Detroit decided they needed to break them up. 

If both are signed, the Pistons still have wiggle room to make trades, as they have several movable contracts, some cheap talent in the pipeline and potential insurance policies for players like Duncan Robinson that they didn’t have last season. 

Even with Duren and Thompson on relatively large numbers, Detroit would still have the contracts, depth and flexibility to make a big trade at next year’s deadline, but after that, it gets tricky. 

Not only will the payroll get more expensive at the top, but there will be more competition for talent next summer with half the league expected to have cap space, though that could certainly change. 

Detroit’s offseason still has unfinished business that will affect the future direction of the team, so the final grades can’t be handed out until we see those two contracts. 

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