Jalen Duren forgoing generational money to play on the qualifying offer is silly
Yahoo Sports senior NBA analyst Kevin O'Connor explains why someone of Jalen Duren's stature shouldn't play on the one-year qualifying offer. Check out the full conversation on "The Kevin O'Connor Show" and subscribe on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube or wherever you listen .
Video Transcript
Because as Mark Stein reported over at The Stein Line, Peyton Watson and Jalen Duren are threatening to take the qualifying offer.
And as Stein wrote, "League sources say Watson, like Detroit's Jalen Duren, has been weighing the unappealing prospect of playing out the 26-27 season on a qualifying offer with the intent to become an unrestricted free agent next summer."
And as Stein said, actually doing so, mind you, means leaving millions on the table.
Peyton Watson has an offer on the table from ar- at around four years, 70-something million dollars.
Jalen Duren has something closer to $30 million annually.
It'd be a big risk for those guys to pass up generational wealth just to sign a one-year offer to maybe get more a year from now as an unrestricted free agent.
Maybe.
No guarantees of that 'cause you never know how the season will go for you.
But I think for Peyton Watson, I cannot foresee him taking the qualifying offer given how unproven he is despite the flashes he showed this year.
Jalen Duren, same thing, considering how poorly the playoffs went for him.
You ca- can you really risk d- that happening again a year from now?
Can you really risk that when there's a lot of bigs in the league?
I think, like, bigs, teams don't necessarily wanna pay a lot of money for bigs unless you're truly elite.
So I, I think for Duren and Watson, you'll see these guys end up resigning, but that's gonna require Denver to get under, and then with Detroit, we'll see how that plays out.
But there's no, there's no market out there for those guys at the moment
