It's Thursday, Oct. 1, and while the significance of that date is typically that it's the start of the best month of the year (no debate), it means something more for the Detroit Pistons this year. Jalen Duren's qualifying offer expires at 11:59 p.m. ET unless the team pushes the deadline back, and that shouldn't happen. What also shouldn't happen is for the day to pass and the holdout to continue, and that could be in the cards.
Duren doesn't have to accept his $9.6 million qualifying offer or sign the Pistons' fully guaranteed five-year, $200 million deal. It's not either/or. He can let the day go by and wake up as a restricted free agent on Oct. 2, just as he's been doing for the past several months.
That wouldn't mean the two sides couldn't still come to terms on a new deal, but it'd just extend the dramatics. No one is asking for an encore.
Detroit needs an end to this situation before the clock strikes midnight. If the Pistons realize Duren is serious about playing out the season on a qualifying offer, their best bet would be to trade him, but they haven't been open to that. They'd have a short window between starting negotiations and getting something done, so that doesn't feel likely, though not impossible.
The Jalen Duren saga needs to end today
As Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic reported yesterday, Detroit removed the weight clause (which wasn't in writing) from Duren's latest offer (subscription required). You can read that as the Pistons' way of enticing the center to sign the long-term deal, though they may end up adding a few more million to push it across the finish line.
If it came down to it, Detroit would rather do that than let Duren accept his qualifying offer, which would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer. The fact that the Pistons haven't shown a willingness to engage in sign-and-trade talks from the start of the offseason until now makes it clear that they want the center to stay.
It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Duren kept holding out, but Detroit needs clarity. Practice is underway, and the Pistons' first preseason game is next week. In less than three weeks, they'll open the regular season against Boston, a tough matchup that will mark the beginning of a challenging first few weeks.
They don't need the Duren situation to become even more of a distraction than it already is. Anyway, what more is there to really say? Or do?
Detroit will have to find a way to mend things with Duren if he re-signs, and although he's been working out over the summer, he'll still be a little behind his teammates in getting up to speed. They're already at a disadvantage, and if it drags out even longer, that will ring even more true.
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