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Shams Charania: "It seems both sides are dug in on their positioning. The Pistons have a level, a threshold that they have for Jalen Duren. Jalen Duren clearly wants more than that. And so they are, I mean technically there's not really a level of urgency quite yet. We're still late July. We haven't even hit August yet. This will go into August, well into August potentially. Would not surprise anyone involved in these negotiations if it does even go till September. The deadline is really media day. So we'll see when Jalen Duren and his reps and the Pistons can find some common ground here."
League sources say Watson, like Detroit's Jalen Duren, has been weighing the unappealing prospect of playing out the 2026-27 season on a qualifying offer with the intent to become an unrestricted free agent next summer. Actually doing so, mind you, means leaving millions on the table.
Sprinkle in Wembanyama's "discount," which came at the worst possible time for a rival player in negotiations, and it's easy to see the Pistons' hesitancy as well as Jalen Duren's gripe. You know it's rocky when your starting center takes a meeting with another team (Lakers) only for said team to immediately turn around and bring in someone else (Kessler). We're talking about a multi-million dollar difference in valuation between player and organization — this could take a while (something you definitely haven't heard elsewhere today!). "They're just going to sit and stare at each other," said one executive. "It's a staring contest. Sounds like he wants more."
The Athletic polled 13 members of rival front offices, asking what they would consider a “fair” contract for Duren. Respondents spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation freely. The Pistons’ leverage is that no other team has the cap space to offer Duren a rich contract. But Duren’s leverage is that he can accept the qualifying offer, which would entail returning to Detroit on a one-year, $9.6 million contract and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, able to sign with whomever he’d like in 2027. “While Detroit might look like they have most of the leverage, given that there are no cap-space teams out there, they’re royally f—– if he takes the qualifying (offer) and walks next year,” one respondent to the poll said. “So, I think leverage is relatively even.”
The largest proposed deal was $230 million over five years. Two executives considered $200 million over five years to be fair. The two other five-year deals were for $190 million and $180 million. The person who suggested the $190 million contract referenced the Pistons’ other priorities from earlier in the summer, when they were reportedly preparing to offer guard Austin Reaves a four-year, $177 million contract before he re-upped with the Los Angeles Lakers. “If they were willing to give a max to Reaves, then they should be willing to do five years, $190 million for a younger player who made All-NBA at a more valuable position,” the respondent said.
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The Clippers — unlike Detroit's stance with restricted free agent big man Duren — have not ruled out participating in a sign-and-trade that lands Bennedict Mathurin elsewhere. Word is they would consider that outcome as well. Yet the Clippers' preferred outcome, we hear, is striking their own deal with Mathurin.
Omari Sankofa II: The Pistons can extend the deadline to March 1. Afterward, my understanding is the player just remains a restricted free agent and the Pistons could restart the process with a new qualifying offer. In other words, there’s no incentive for a player to decline the QO
Jake Fischer: Jalen Duren has been out of the cards for Sacramento from the very beginning. They had interest there, of course, but there’s never gonna be a sign-and-trade that Detroit would have been willing to function, and we’re still getting that intel, we could take this to Jalen Duren as well: Still receiving word out of Detroit that the Pistons have zero interest in playing ball in any sign-and-trade scenario that would deliver their franchise center out of Detroit.
Fullcourtpass: There is still the threat that Jalen Duren would be willing to sign the qualifying offer, per @JakeLFischer
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Detroit's negotiating window with restricted free agent big man Jalen Duren opened on June 14 ... one day after the Knicks completed a five-game dismissal of San Antonio in the NBA Finals. Some five weeks later ... Progress has been modest to this point in negotiations between the Pistons and Duren, according to sources briefed on the discussions. Sources say that the Pistons, though, also continue to brush aside any introduction of sign-and-trade scenarios to the talks that would land Duren elsewhere.
In his latest Bleacher Report update, NBA insider Jake Fischer revealed that both sides have taken a significant step since the Pistons cleared key cap space via the Caris LeVert trade, which could be allotted to Duren's next contract. "There's been momentum and positive direction between Duren and the Pistons. And ever since that Caris LeVert trade for Taurean Prince and Gary Harris, that opened up the cap space for Detroit to give Jalen Duren his 25% max contract that he is looking for," Fischer claimed. "I do think they're getting close. That's my latest understanding of that situation. I don't know exactly how close or when to expect it, but definitely closer than when they were before that trade. And I think that trade was indicative of some positive movement between Detroit and Jalen Duren."
The Pistons would prefer to keep Duren rather than cooperate in a sign-and-trade (the Kings, for example, were known to be offering big man Domantas Sabonis). But a league source, granted anonymity to discuss negotiations still in progress, told The Athletic that signing Duren is Detroit’s No. 1 offseason priority and the team is confident it’ll come to an agreement with Duren. Both sides want to get a deal done that makes sense for everyone involved, the source said.
Oh No He Didn't: Chris Haynes on Jalen Duren: "If he takes that (qualifying offer)...he really wants out, he is fed up...he doesn't want to be there. Even if that's the case I would say do not do that"
