Every friend group has that one couple. You can see the red flags from a mile away. The two sides seem miserable together, but insist there is still love there. Or each person stews in silence publicly and tells you how miserable they are privately. You never push too hard because it’s not your place.
That feels like the stage we have reached with the Detroit Pistons and free agent big man Jalen Duren.
Maybe all this animosity leaking through press sources is just gamesmanship and negotiating tactics, and none of it resembles reality. But from my limited vantage point, I think it’s time to break up this toxic relationship.
Nothing about the actions from the Duren camp nor the Pistons camp indicates that either is seriously invested in a long-term relationship. Every single move seems like a form of self-sabotage designed to force the other side to formally declare this union dissolved.
In a matter of days, maybe both sides will secretly get what they want, but neither side is willing to admit — Jalen Duren playing for a basketball team that is not the Detroit Pistons.
It might seem like the hostilities began on the eve of free agency when it became known that Duren was interested in talking to other teams with the potential cap space to sign him to the max contract he sought. However, the issues stretch back a year prior, when the Pistons weren’t interested in signing him to a post-rookie extension and were comfortable entering into restricted free agency.
It seems that, to paraphrase Michael Jordan, Duren took that personally.
Since then, we’ve had a seemingly endless series of leaks from Duren’s camp about various teams’ interest, and his interest in other teams. Nobody ever said, “Duren has no interest in playing for the Pistons,” but maybe that’s where we’ve always been.
The Pistons are not blameless. The post-rookie extension numbers they were interested in seemed low at the time and are laughably low in hindsight; reportedly, closer to $20 million per year than the $40 million per year Duren was seeking. Duren then delivered the best season of his career as a 22-year-old and earned an All-Star berth and All-NBA honors. Detroit upped offers into the low $30 millions while Duren was technically eligible for a $287-million, five-year extension.
Detroit has moved, but seemingly done so kicking and screaming. It’s almost like they like Duren, but they’re not in love with Duren.
Certainly not to the level they love Ausar Thompson. To the discerning Pistons fan, Ausar is the team’s second most important player behind Cade Cunningham. Unlike with Duren, Detroit was much more eager to secure the defensive wing on a post-rookie max, and announced a five-year, $155 million pact even while the Duren drama drags on.
Thompson is far from a perfect player, and his paycheck is counting on a level of needed improvement on the offensive end. I think he’ll improve offensively to the point he can’t be paid off the floor. When that happens, this deal will look like a steal. But from Duren’s perspective, it seems like just one more slight.
The latest salvo comes from recent reports that Detroit is looking at adding a weight clause as an incentive to Duren’s deal. Duren, reportedly, finds it disrespectful. Now, sometimes these incentive clauses are more face-saving moves. Either unlikely incentives so a player (and his agent) can say he got a deal higher than he did in reality, or a clause to give the Pistons the plausible deniability of smart fiscal management.
This might be that. Or it might be the kind of ultimatum that is the hallmark of the late stages of a relationship doomed to end.
The Pistons feel like a team that knows intellectually that investing gigantic sums of money in a player who lacks range and defensive dominance is risky. Doubly so if you’ve already committed to Ausar Thompson during what could be your entire title window.
Perhaps Trajan Langdon is a guy who, all else being equal, would have been much more interested in a center who fit the scheme and was the fifth-best player on the floor. Instead, he inherited a great young prospect. It’s the kind of talent that’s hard to walk away from, even as every move you’re making gives away that your heart just isn’t into it like it should be.
We are going to know where the truth lies in a matter of days. Duren is either going to sign a long-term deal with Detroit, or he is going to get sign-and-traded for a return that includes a more workmanlike center.
We’ll see if this was the kind of relationship where people are working the media for favorable coverage or if this is a truly dysfunctional couple headed for divorce. I’m finally starting to think it’s the latter.
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