Jalen Duren has until Oct. 1 to accept his $9.6 million qualifying offer unless the Detroit Pistons agree to push the deadline back, and they've given no indication they do. If the center decides to take that route, thinking a team like the Kings will offer him a max next summer, history won't be in his favor.
As ESPN reported Tuesday, none of the 43 players who have accepted their qualifying offer since 1999 have made an All-NBA or All-Star team. Duren would be the only one.
He'd be walking away from a $200 million, fully guaranteed offer from Detroit to play out the season on less than $10 million, only to maybe sign a four-year, $189 million max deal that would pay slightly less than he could if he stayed in Detroit. And that's only if there was a max on the table for him next offseason.
Even though it's coming down to the buzzer and we know Duren has felt disrespected by Detroit, like with the weight stipulations, it's still hard to believe he'll actually turn down the guaranteed money the Pistons put on the table.
The players who came before him and took the qualifying offer didn't have nearly as much to lose.
Jalen Duren has to take the money from the Pistons, right?
The fact that it's even a question on Sept. 29, with the offseason over, media day in the rearview mirror, and practice starting, gives enough reason to believe Duren could take his qualifying offer. He's already made it this far, and that alone could incentivize him to risk his future rather than make it seem like his holdout was for nothing, as if anyone would blame him for re-signing with the Pistons.
Some may say it's his only real option, given the position he would put himself in by playing out the season on $9.6 million, risking an injury or a down season, making teams more hesitant to invest in him. In less than a year from now (it might not even take that long), Duren could find himself wishing he had signed for $200 million. The chances of that happening would be quite high, actually. It's simple math.
If those other 43 players who took the qualifying offer had a $200 million deal on the table, they wouldn't be in that statistic. And although Duren is more established coming off the season he did, even at his young age, that's still a deal that he should feel very good about signing.
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