Jalen Duren's restricted free agency: Stay in Detroit or join Luka and the Lakers?
After the three-team trade, the Los Angeles Lakers emerge as the only real threat to Detroit keeping Jalen Duren. The Pistons Talk podcast weighs Duren's options — lower taxes and loyalty in Detroit vs. chasing a max deal in LA with Luka Doncic — and gives an honest prediction on what contract gets done.
Video Transcript
Jalen Duren's only real team in restricted free agency that we have to worry about is the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now, does Duren wanna stay in Detroit, pay less taxes, have more money in his bank account, and play for a team that has drafted him, play for a team that he's familiar with, with Cade Cunningham and JB Bickerstaff?
Or does he wanna bounce, go play with Luka, possibly LeBron, take one less year on a, on, on a deal, possibly get the 177?
Who knows what the Lakers would offer the max.
I would assume that they would try to, to force the Pistons' hand.
But those are the conversations you have to have.
I'll give you guys just my honest opinion on the matter, and this is just in my opinion.
I think the Pistons are going to be able to get a deal done with Duren that is probably closer to the 190 to, the $200 million range.
I said yesterday, I would be okay and I would be happy if the Pistons can keep a deal over a five-year period with Jalen Duren under $200 million.
We all know that the reports are that Jalen Duren is seeking $40 million, so that would be like a five-year, $200 million contract.
I'm hoping Trajan Langdon and this Detroit Pistons front office can kinda convince him, saying like, "Hey, if you take a, you know, couple million dollars less we can, you know, kind of build around you in the core, and Cade, and the Sar of, you know, trying to get more pieces so we could possibly be playing in the Eastern Conference finals, maybe against the Knicks, maybe against the Celtics, and try to compete for an NBA finals."
Because if you kinda look at the contracts, the future contracts with this team, and you got Cade on a max contract making, you know, $50 million, having Duren at $40 million, and possibly a Sar in the low to mid-30s, it's gonna be pretty hard to build a competitive team to surround those guys, because we both know Jalen Duren and Sar Thompson, as of right now, are not floor spacers.
Jalen Duren did an incredible job this year of upping his scoring average on dribble drives and getting to the free throw line.
I think there's still a lot of untapped potential there with a mid-range shot and developing more of a go-to move in the post.
And Sar Thompson, obviously we'd like to see him be more of a consistent scoring threat, from the outside, improve the three-point shot, improve the mid-range jump shot, be a little bit more aggressive at the rim.
But I did wanna update you guys on this trade.
It does affect the Jalen Duren restricted free agency market quite a bit.
