On Monday's episode of ESPN's NBA Today, Shams Charania said that the Detroit Pistons and Jalen Duren had "picked up communication." That must be a good thing, right? But the insider added that he was told the team had upped its offer to $200 million over five years. If that's the case, why haven't we already heard that he signed a new deal?
As Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic reported a week and a half ago, the Pistons' latest offer to Duren was $190 million over five years, but the center wanted "at least $200 million" (subscription required).
Either Duren wants more than $200 million, or he doesn't want to be in Detroit at all. The longer it goes on, the more it seems the latter is true. Marc Spears did say last week that it wasn't about the money for the center. Considering that he was stuck in a stalemate with the Pistons, wanting more money than they had offered, that was hard to believe.
But now? If Detroit truly did present him with a $200 million offer and that didn't move Duren to sign, especially with training camp beginning next week, his desire to leave the Pistons could win out over signing a long-term deal.
Pistons reportedly offered Duren $200 million
Chances are, if you're reading this, you might not be too pleased knowing that Detroit upped its offer to Duren once again. It's not like the Pistons were taking the cheap route by offering him a five-year deal in the $180-$190 million range. That's still a lot of money. It's not the max, but he wasn't going to get that much anyway.
Duren might think that he can sign a max next summer if he accepts his $9.6 million qualifying offer and becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2027. The draw of starting over somewhere new—like Sacramento—might mean more to him than helping continue building something special in Detroit.
Maybe he feels disrespected enough by the Pistons to risk his future by playing out the season for far less than he deserves, with no guarantee that a team will make him a similar offer next offseason.
Either way, given that the most he'd be eligible to sign for next summer is $187 million over four years, that plus the qualifying offer would still come in at less than $200 million.
Is Duren really that desperate to leave Detroit? It sure seems like it.
We all knew that if he re-signed, the Pistons would have to mend that relationship, but this is next level, as in this isn't a relationship worth saving, at least from the center's perspective. And if Duren holds out and does take the qualifying offer, that will tell us everything we need to know.
Add us as a preferred source on Google