We’ve spent all offseason talking about a possible max offer for Jalen Duren, but the Pistons only put one near-max offer on the table this summer, and it wasn’t for their 22-year-old center.
According to the Third Apron Podcast with Yossi Gozlan and Jovan Buha, it was Detroit who was the closest to a max offer for Austin Reaves, which forced the Lakers to increase their original lowball offer to four years and $180 million.
If the Pistons came anywhere near that, then it is more than they have offered Jalen Duren, even though Reaves is five years older and off a season in which he only played 51 games. Duren played 70 games and was chosen for both All-Star and All-NBA numbers.
By most measures, Duren should be the one collecting the contract that Reaves just got, yet the Pistons haven’t budged past their offer, which is for a similar total amount but for five years instead of four.
The fact that the Pistons were that close to making a bold offer to Reaves but haven’t moved on their Duren stance tells us everything we need to know about what Detroit really values.
The Pistons need a second option and Jalen Duren isn’t it
Detroit did little to address the fact that they still don’t have a second creator or reliable scoring option, which is why they were interested in Reaves, a guy who can be both. He averaged over 23 points and five assists last season, so he’d be ideal as the secondary creator and scorer next to Cade Cunningham.
Only 10 players in the league averaged at least 23 points and five assists per game last season. Reaves isn’t officially included since he missed the cut by seven games, but he’s in some rare company, as almost all of the players who hit that mark were on the All-NBA teams.
The Pistons rightfully concluded that a scorer and creator of this caliber is more valuable than a center whose offensive game is mostly predicated on his superstar teammate drawing in the defense and then throwing him lobs.
This is one of the reasons we are not seeing the Pistons give in on their offer to Duren, as they still need a Reaves type player, and they are generally more expensive and harder to come by than centers.
It would have been easy for the Pistons to just take the money they had earmarked for Reaves (or someone else) and give it to Duren instead, but if they want to build a championship level team, they will need more players who can create and score, so it is smart to play hardball with Duren so that there is still space to add that guy.
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