With roughly 32 hours remaining until Jalen Duren's 11:59 p.m. ET Oct. 1 deadline to accept his $9.6 million qualifying offer or sign the latest five-year, $200 million offer from the Detroit Pistons, Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic reported that the team opted to remove the weight clause (subscription required):
Per league sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity as negotiations continue, the weight clause initially proposed as part of the Pistons’ five-year, $200 million offer is no longer part of the talks. The clause was never put in writing. That $200 million offer, which Duren has thus far not accepted, is fully guaranteed and includes no weight-related provisions.
Amick and Patterson reported from the start that the weight clause wasn't in writing, and with the situation coming down to the final buzzer (unless the Pistons decide to extend the QO deadline), it makes sense for Detroit to remove it.
All that it did was make Duren feel even more disrespected, and since the Pistons have maintained that they want to keep the center, eliminating the weight stipulations might help close a deal before time expires. It was worth a shot, at least, as Detroit shouldn't tack more money onto its latest offer, though at this point, that might end up being what it takes.
Pistons never should've included the weight clause
Amick and Patterson reported last week that Detroit "privately wanted" Duren to cut weight (subscription required) after the Pistons lost to the Cavaliers in Game 7 of the second round. They added that the team's belief that "his weight was partly to blame came as a surprise to Duren and his camp."
Wanting Duren to cut weight is one thing, but putting it in his contract (or at least wanting to) wasn't necessary. Trajan Langdon might've been haunted by working with Zion Williamson in New Orleans, as his career has been marked by injury and conditioning concerns. That's not Duren.
If the Pistons did it to try to protect themselves after upping their offer from $190 million to $200 million, that's not a good excuse either.
Will Jalen Duren take the Pistons' offer now?
That's the million-dollar question.
Truthfully, a weight clause alone shouldn't have been what kept Duren from signing the five-year, $200 million deal. It seems like there's more to it than that, since he and the Pistons have been stuck in a stalemate for months.
If it were about money, he would've jumped at the $200 million when it was first offered, right? And if that were the case, $190 million probably should've been enough.
Duren wouldn't have held out this long if his qualifying offer wasn't something he was seriously considering playing out the season on. Still, walking away from the money Detroit already offered could prove to be too much of a risk for the 22-year-old, and that's because it would be.
Removing the weight clause could at least entice Duren to re-sign with Detroit, but even then, the Pistons would probably still have a lot of work to do to mend their relationship with the center. It would've been nice for Detroit to get a jumpstart on doing that before training camp started, but at this point, both sides coming out of this saga on the same page (and if not the same page, on the same book) would be a win.
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