The Detroit Pistons have reportedly offered Jalen Duren $200 million over five seasons, which would make him one of the highest paid centers in the NBA and put the Pistons in a precarious position.
It seems from Trajan Langdon's demeanor at media day that the Pistons have made their final offer to Duren, who can either now accept it or take the qualifying offer.
If Duren eventually takes the money it will put him on a short list of centers that make over $35 million a year, a group that includes:
-Nikola Jokic
-Joel Embiid
-Karl Anthony-Towns
-Domantas Sabonis
-Rudy Gobert
-Alperen Sengun
It's an interesting list of former MVPs, NBA champions, Defensive Player of the Year award winners and rebounding champions. And it's a list that should terrify the Pistons.
Only the best centers in the league are getting paid
In Jokic and Embiid, you have MVPs, KAT is one of the best shooting centers of all time and just won a title, coming up huge for the Knicks. Domantas Sabonis won the rebounding title multiple times and led a team to the playoffs while nearly averaging a triple double. Rudy Gobert is a multiple Defensive Player of the Year award winner.
Outside of Sengun, all of these players are guys who have proven themselves and done big things in the NBA, and they mostly did them before they got those big contracts they currently enjoy.
Even though Duren made All-NBA (a fluke of injuries), does anyone consider him one of the top 7-8 centers in the league? Is he an MVP candidate? A DPOY candidate? A guy who can be the best player on a playoff team? Maybe someday, but right now the answer to all of those is no.
And even though all of the players on this list are good, their contracts are ones their teams would love to get rid of in most cases.
Paying a center is a risky proposition
We aren't seeing most NBA centers get paid like they used to, largely because the game has changed so much and traditional big men aren't as valued.
Duren is a traditional big man, which means paying him a huge amount of money comes with risk that the game will pass him by or that he'll get injured.
Out of all of the centers on that list, only Jokic and KAT (and ONLY because he won a title, otherwise he'd be on the hot seat) have a deal his team wouldn't love to get rid of, as the rest of those players are now considered bad assets because of injuries or in Sengun's case, a lack of defense.
If Duren didn't improve much, or got hurt, the Pistons could be in the same spot, which is why paying a center comes with increased risk.
Only the elite centers are getting paid, and Duren isn't there yet, so the Pistons should think hard before they increase their offer or they may regret it.
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