The Detroit Pistons and Jalen Duren are still trying to find an ending to what seems like a never-ending saga. Duren wants out, but the Pistons don’t want to allow that, as he is a restricted free agent.
The team has recently offered Duren a $200 million deal.
“The Pistons and Jalen Duren are at an impasse and it’s highly up in the air and questionable as to whether he will be reporting and showing up for media day in just 7 days…over the course of this offseason, his offer from the Pistons has been around the $180 to $190M over 5 years range. And that has also included incentives like weight clauses to my understanding. And that has all played a part in this as well. And over the last several weeks been kind of quiet on this front. The sides have picked up communication. And I am told right now the Pistons offer to Jalen Duren is $200M over 5 years,” ESPN’s Shams Charania said.
There is no doubt that most players would accept an offer like that. However, the Pistons have included a weight clause in the contract.
“As if the contract negotiations between Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons weren’t already heavy enough, a weight clause in the team’s latest five-year, $200 million offer to Duren could tip the scales in the wrong direction,” The Athletic’s Sam Amick wrote.
Within the next week, it should become clear whether Duren is going to take the qualifying offer or accept the lucrative deal from Detroit. Barstool Sports’ Sam Vecenie revealed that Duren has until October 1 to accept the qualifying offer.
“It just feels like we’ve hit the point where there is too much money on the table for Jalen Duren to not sign a deal with Detroit before the October 1 qualifying offer deadline, right,” Vecenie said.
This has been a very interesting situation to monitor, but if Duren doesn’t accept the qualifying offer, he is going to either sign the big deal or pursue a sign-and-trade. Some answers in this entire situation should become available over the next week.
Duren is a great young center; however, this entire situation has been very odd. It seems like both sides are just trying to out-petty each other. With training camp and deadlines looming, Duren doesn’t have much longer to hold out.
