Jalen Duren spent all summer in tense contract negotiations with the Detroit Pistons. He reportedly wanted a max deal worth up to $287 million over five years, an annual salary of around $57.4 million that would have made him one of the highest-paid players in the NBA. But the Pistons clearly didn’t view him as being in that tier, refusing to go higher than $200 million over five years ($40 million per year).
That’s a substantial gap, and it only heightened the tension between the two sides. Last week, though, Duren gave in and accepted the Pistons’ offer, signing a five-year, $200 million fully guaranteed extension to stay in Detroit. Recently, ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill reported that one of the things that aggrieved Duren the most was how the Pistons viewed him in their pecking order of talent.
"One of the reasons for Duren’s frustration was hearing in negotiations that he was the team’s fourth-best player -- perhaps said in a way to illustrate how far he’d fallen in the playoffs, perhaps the cold part of negotiations," Goodwill wrote. More news: LeBron James Sends Clear Message After Sixers Debut More news: Kyrie Irving Drops Hint on Mavs Future With Cooper Flagg Comments Duren broke out last season, averaging a career-high 19.5 points per game, along with 10.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists, while shooting 65% from the field. He earned his first All-Star nod and third-team All-NBA honors.
But his numbers dropped significantly in the playoffs, and the Pistons were bounced in the second round, falling in seven games to the Cavaliers despite entering the postseason with 60 wins and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Across 14 postseason games, Duren averaged 10.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists, while shooting just 51.4% from the field. Those aren’t the numbers of a max-caliber player, especially at a position where big men are consistently being pressured to stretch the floor, and Duren has no game outside the paint.
His decision to take the Pistons’ deal suggests he may have seen his market dwindling as well, and that the max he was pushing for wasn’t a viable option. As for the claim that Duren was the “fourth-best player” in Detroit, he likely did take a backseat to Cade Cunningham, Ausar Thompson and Tobias Harris, who all performed much better in the postseason. More news: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Makes Emphatic Statement About Being NBA’s Best
Extract — continue reading at the source.
