The Pistons are already getting excited about offseason improvements from some young players, but preseason play won't cut it anymore for Jalen Duren. His standard is much higher now, with his huge contract. Coming off an All-Star season followed by a playoff collapse and long contract disputes, Duren needs to prove his improvements in an actual game with stakes before anyone gets excited.
Duren has set himself up for a high bar
Since finally signing his 5-year/$200 million contract, Duren has said and shown all the right things. He was brutally honest about his need to add more counters to his game for better playoff performances. Then he showed some of those very counters in training camp, including an improved handle and comfortable shooting out to the three-point line.
But none of those glimpses matter until Duren proves them to be effective against at least regular season competition. Some may be willing to go as far as saying nothing is relevant until he’s back on a playoff stage, but there should be clear improvements long before then. If Duren has added more playoff resilience to his skillset, it should be apparent in the regular season.
As it stands, anything before regular season games against quality teams amounts to practically nothing for Duren. Obviously he won’t be going against defenders playing at the same level in practice or in the preseason. Even in the regular season, Duren’s performances against lesser teams won’t be very convincing.
Detroit won’t have to wait long in the regular season
Fortunately for the Pistons, they’ll get immediate chances to gauge Duren’s progress once the regular season gets going. The season opener against the Celtics will be the very first game on the league’s regular season calendar. And it’ll pit Duren against a great defender at the center position in Mitchell Robinson.
The next three games will continue a trend of strong centers and overall playoff teams - the Heat, 76ers and Knicks. Duren’s matchups during that stretch will include Bam Adebayo, Joel Embiid and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Throughout these games, Duren will face not only challenging centers but also formidable help defenders and smart coaches looking to exploit his weakness from last season. If he hasn’t taken a leap with new tricks in his bag, we should know right away.
The opening month of the regular season won’t quite be at the same intensity as the playoffs, but the defenses will still be very prepared. Everyone will be fresh off the summer too, so we should expect to see even older stars play big minutes in those games. As a result, Duren will get an immediate chance at the first step to redemption for his awful playoff showing and long offseason holdout.
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