The Detroit Pistons’ stalled talks with Jalen Duren are a clean example of a problem the NBA helped create and now has to live with.
Under the league’s most recent collective bargaining agreement, players can qualify for far bigger contracts than teams can comfortably hand out while still keeping a roster intact. At the same time, the new rules around the tax aprons make it much tougher for teams to spend freely without paying a real price in team-building, trades and even future draft picks.
That tension is exactly where Duren’s situation sits.
Because of the 65-game rule for award eligibility, a number of strong players were pushed off the All-NBA teams this season. Duren ended up on the third team, which makes him eligible for a massive payday even though, as the source puts it, he is not someone many would rank as a top-five center in the NBA.
That’s the catch. He can be paid like one, but the market is not lining up to treat him that way. The Pistons are part of that reality, and they have their own priorities to sort through, including a future extension for Ausar Thompson, who is ultimately more important to the team’s future.
This is a very different league than the one that existed before the current CBA. Teams used to be able to keep writing the check and deal with the financial hit later. Now the second apron carries consequences that go well beyond ownership’s wallet, and that has changed how front offices approach these negotiations.
The result is a standoff that feels bigger than one player. Duren may be eligible for the kind of money that comes with being an All-NBA selection, but there does not appear to be a team willing or able to pay him that number, including Detroit.
And the number is enormous. It is hard to tell a player who is eligible for $287 million that he is really worth $100 million less.
So teams will keep looking for ways around the squeeze. Shorter deals and unlikely-to-be-earned incentives are two of the tools that could become more common, since they do not immediately hit the cap in the same way.
Until something changes, this is the kind of hardball negotiation the NBA should expect to see more often. The league and its players built this system together, and the pressure it creates is not going away.
In Other News...
Pistons May Lose A Real Cade Backcourt Target Over Outside Drama
Bennedict Mathurin has been one of the more interesting names on the Pistons radar as Detroit keeps looking for another perimeter scorer who can ease some of the burden on Cade Cunningham. The appeal is obvious enough: Mathurin brings shot creation and isolation scoring, the kind of offensive juice that can make a backcourt look a lot less predictable, and Detroit has at least explored the possibility of getting him through a sign-and-trade.
The problem is that the market around him is not moving cleanly. The Clippers have interest in keeping the restricted free agent, but their offseason plans are tied up by the unresolved investigation involving Kawhi Leonard and Aspiration, which has slowed down a broader chain of roster decisions. For Detroit, that means a target that fits a clear need could end up stuck in limbo, with the Pistons waiting to see whether the situation finally opens up or closes off entirely. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Offseason Left Cade Facing The Same Frustrating Questions
The Pistons spent the offseason reshaping the edges of the roster, bringing in John Collins, Isaiah Joe, Taurean Prince, Gary Harris and Kevin Huerter in hopes of giving the lineup more spacing and a little more depth. Even with those additions, the bigger question around Cade Cunningham has not changed much, because Detroit still has not really given him the kind of second scorer or steady ball-handling partner that can lighten the load when defenses key on him.
Daniss Jenkins and Paul Reed both stand to benefit from the new look, with Jenkins suddenly in position to compete for backup point guard minutes and Reed climbing the depth chart after Isaiah Stewart was moved out. But the most important unresolved piece remains the one that could shape how the roster functions once the season starts, especially if Detroit is forced to lean on younger, less proven options around its franchise guard. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Sasser Suddenly Has A Chance To Haunt The Pistons
Marcus Sassers move from Detroit to Dallas this summer looked like a simple roster shuffle at first, but it may end up being one of those deals the Pistons have to watch from afar. He never got much runway in Detroit, where his role stayed limited, even though he showed enough shot-making to hint at a bigger job. Now he lands with a Mavericks team that just moved Ryan Nembhard, and that could open a clear path for Sasser to compete for the backup point guard spot.
For Dallas, the timing matters because this is the final year of Sassers rookie contract, so every opportunity carries a little more weight. For the Pistons, the sting is obvious: they may have sent out one of their better creators without ever really finding out how much he could handle. If Sasser turns those minutes into a real rotation role, Detroit will be left wondering whether it let a useful guard slip away too soon. [Read more 🡒]