Jalen Duren is back with the Detroit Pistons after agreeing to sign the fully guaranteed five-year, $200 million offer. As Sam Amick of The Athletic reported after the news broke, owner Tom Gores "played a pivotal part" in the center's decision to stay (subscription required):
...Gores made a promise to Duren and his family that he would help provide a more positive Pistons experience.
As Amick wrote, it was an "acknowledgment that this sensitive situation had gone sideways." Maybe the validation Gores gave Duren, knowing he had been wronged (as he felt disrespected), by saying that gave the center hope that things truly would be better.
But what specifically was the promise?
Gores helped Jalen Duren decide to re-sign with Pistons
The way that it's written makes it sound as if Duren was seriously thinking about taking the qualifying offer, as in he was about to do it, before Gores stepped in. Although things came down to the wire, the center could easily have screwed himself over by playing out the season on $9.6 million, so taking the $200 million should've been the easy choice.
That should be enough of a promise, yeah? As in, 'Hey! We believe in you. That's why we're offering $200 million over five years. We think you can help us win a championship, and we see you as part of our core. We don't want you to go anywhere.'
Given how the negotiations went, maybe Gores didn't think $200 million was enough, so he could've added a few perks to entice the center to make the only rational move. Given that Amick mentioned Duren's family, perhaps it had something to do with them. A premium lounge? Flying them to away games? Dinner on him?
It could've been a general promise that things would be better, with Gore saying he'd make sure of that himself— as long as it didn't involve Duren taking no-show sponsorship deals.
Jalen Duren didn't short himself by taking $200 million
He was eligible to sign for up to $287 million after making All-NBA, but Detroit wasn't going to pay that much after watching him in the playoffs. Yes, he's just 22, so he has time to right his postseason wrongs, but the Pistons weren't going to give him that kind of money without seeing it first. And they still banked on his upside by offering him that much money.
Even though he could've signed for $87 million more, getting $200 million fully guaranteed is still a really good deal for Duren. It's not like the Pistons lowballed him and needed Gores to sweeten the deal in other ways.
Detroit didn't handle things well (like with the weight clause), but that doesn't mean that the Pistons wronged Duren at every turn. They upped their offer to him a few times, even though they weren't in a bidding war with another team. Just themselves.
In the end, the Pistons needed Duren back, and if that meant Gore stepping in to make sure it happened, then great. We may never know the specifics of that conversation, but now that this chapter is finally over, the work to live up to his new contract will begin. Can he promise that?
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