Jalen Duren has been one of the feel-good NBA stories this year, going from strong support player to bona fide star. And the reason he is on the Detroit Pistons is that the front office traded for him on draft night four years ago -- a deal that looks like an absolute home run now.
Troy Weaver did not have a good run of things in Detroit, and he made a number of poor decisions that set the franchise back. Where he did help the franchise was on draft night, where his ability to identify talent brought a number of key young players to Detroit -- players who form the backbone of the current team.
Drafting Cade Cunningham first when he was the consensus No. 1 overall pick wasn't some stunning move, but going after Jalen Duren certainly was. The Pistons used the No. 5 pick on Purdue guard Jaden Ivey, then traded back into the back-end of the lottery to take Memphis big man Jalen Duren.
Drafting Jalen Duren was a savvy move
It was hardly seen as an obvious move at the time. The Pistons had to take on Kemba Walker's contract in the move and give up a future first-round pick. They did so to move ahead of the Charlotte Hornets and drafted Duren over Duke big man Mark Williams - a controversial decision at the time.
Controversial no longer! Duren has broken out in a major way, while Williams has struggled with injuries and failed to put things together for Charlotte or Phoenix. Duren built year by year, adding rebounding to play finishing to defense and suddenly putting it all together this year as a breakout All-Star.
Duren has earned all of the accolades coming his way. He increased his scoring by eight points per game, averaging 19.5 points to go along with his 10.7 rebounds per game. He is not only benefiting from Cunningham's level up, but he has stepped up in Cunningham's absence down the stretch for the No. 1 seed Pistons and been dominant. It's a true star turn for Duren.
Now add in that the cost for the Pistons was minimal. That first-round pick they owed to the New York Knicks could have been a lucrative one, but instead it landed at 19th in last year's draft, owned by the Brooklyn Nets.
The Pistons didn't give much up
They used the pick on French guard Nolan Traore, and while he is young and could turn things around, he has been one of the worst players in the NBA this season. He looks helpless on the court, and if the comparison is Traore and cap space vs Duren, the scale is obviously 100 percent weighted to Detroit's side of the deal.
Even if you move off of Traore specifically, there was no player taken in the back half of the first round who would make the Pistons blink before trading them for Duren. A few players who went after Traore look like future rotation players -- Will Riley in Washington, Hugo Gonzalez in Boston -- but there are no stars.
Troy Weaver may have dropped the ball running the Pistons, but he nailed the Jalen Duren trade. And as the young center levels up into a star, and the pick traded for him fizzles out, the trade just keeps looking better and better.