Remember walking away from the 2022 NBA Draft, feeling great about the Detroit Pistons nabbing Jaden Ivey (No. 5) and Jalen Duren (No. 13) after trading for the center out of Memphis? With the team selecting Cade Cunningham with the No. 1 pick the year before, there was hope for the future.
Well, about that.
Cunningham is the star the Pistons hoped he would be, but Ivey is out of the picture, as Detroit traded him to Chicago as part of a multi-team deal before February's deadline. The Bulls waived the guard at the end of March, and he's remained unsigned since. He may never return to the NBA.
Picking Duren wasn't the whiff that the Ivey selection turned out to be. Still, the center could be on his way out soon if he's serious about accepting his qualifying offer (subscription required), as Marc Stein of The Stein Line reported on Thursday.
One source briefed on the process says Duren is increasingly prepared to play out the coming season on his $9.6 million qualifying offer — with the intent to become an unrestricted free agent next summer — if no deal with Detroit materializes by the end of September.
In nine months, both of the Pistons' 2022 lottery picks could be gone, and Detroit may not have much of anything at all to show for their departures.
Pistons' 2022 lottery pick hype could fade entirely
At this point, you may be ready for Duren to play out the season on his qualifying offer, knowing that the Pistons have offered him a five-year deal worth $35 million annually, as ESPN's Tim MacMahon reported. That's not chump change, but the center is reportedly seeking more than $40 million annually.
If he truly isn't willing to accept anything less than that, you can convince yourself that Detroit will be better off without him if he does walk next summer. Perhaps the Pistons will come out on top in the end if they keep holding off on giving Duren what he wants, if he proves he wasn't worth them caving to his demands.
That wouldn't change the fact that Detroit's 2022 draft ended up being a bust, and not because Duren isn't a talented player, as he was one of the steals of the draft, but because he may not end up sticking with the Pistons. Missing out on two top picks like that in the Cunningham era would be regrettable, though the center's circumstances are a lot different than Ivey's. At least they got something in return for the guard, though.
Detroit may have to cut its losses if Duren's camp isn't willing to erase the line that it's drawn in the sand. So much for all of that 2022 hype, huh?
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