Jalen Duren’s spot in ESPN’s Top 100 for next season raised eyebrows for a simple reason: the playoff tape does not match the ranking.
ESPN placed Duren at No. 33, one slot ahead of OG Anunoby at No. 34, even though Anunoby was coming off a championship run and Duren’s last postseason stretch was a mess. The gap is even harder to swallow when you look at what each player did when the games got biggest. Duren averaged just 10 points per game in the playoffs, while Anunoby delivered 20 points per game during a dominant title run.
There is at least one argument for giving Duren some extra leeway. He was operating as his team’s second option, while Anunoby was a much farther-down-the-line third option for the Knicks. Anunoby also had the advantage of playing alongside two other All-Stars who drew the defense’s first attention in Finals MVP Jalen Brunson and Karl Anthony-Towns.
But that explanation only goes so far. The difference in production and efficiency is too large to brush off, even with the context.
Anunoby has spent years proving he can fit beside stars without needing the ball to be the centerpiece. He’s been an elite 3-point shooter for a long time, and during the Knicks championship run he hit a ridiculous 49% from deep.
His value isn’t limited to scoring, either. Anunoby’s defense is elite, and his versatility on that end may be the best in the league. What makes his playoff run stand out even more is that he kept that level of defense while increasing his scoring load.
Duren’s ranking also looks shaky when compared with two other players sitting below him: Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. In the Pistons-Magic first-round series, Banchero and Wagner clearly looked like the second- and third-best players on the floor behind Cade Cunningham.
Both played like stars whose games translated cleanly to the postseason, while Duren struggled badly. After that head-to-head showing, it’s tough to justify putting Duren ahead of either one.
The regular season was a strong step forward for Duren, and he’ll need to keep building on it. But after that playoff collapse, he still has work to do before he can claim a place among the league’s top players. That reality is showing up in how he’s being viewed this offseason.
In Other News...
Pistons May Have Finally Found A Jalen Duren Trade Fit
Jalen Durens name is starting to surface in the kind of trade chatter that usually only appears when a team is weighing its long-term direction, and the Atlanta Hawks have been mentioned as a possible fit. The logic is pretty simple: Atlanta could use more size, and league observers have pointed to Onyeka Okongwu as the kind of young center who could make a deal workable if the conversation ever got serious.
For Detroit, the idea is intriguing mostly because it says something about Durens value around the league. The Hawks have other useful pieces too, including Nickeil Alexander-Walker, but they are not likely to move a player of Okongwus caliber without real reason to believe Durens future in Detroit is slipping away. For now, it remains a speculative angle, one that depends on how negotiations unfold and whether the Pistons ever get a signal that changes the stakes. [Read more 🡒]
Pistons Are Betting On Ausar Thompson In A Risky Tradeoff
The Pistons are asking Ausar Thompson to take on more offense next season, a push that fits the broader need for another young core piece to do more with the ball in his hands. Detroit has seen enough of his defensive gifts to know what he brings on that end, but the plan now is to stretch his game and see whether a bigger scoring role can help raise the teams overall ceiling.
Ausars path is hardly without risk, though, because a more assertive offensive approach can change the balance of everything else he does on the floor. Detroit is betting the payoff will be worth it, hoping any small slide in his defensive production is more than covered by the added offense, even if the tradeoff has the feel of a delicate one. [Read more 🡒]
Trajan Langdon Faces Big Pistons Questions Fans Need Answered
The Pistons are back together for their official media day, and for a fan base that spent much of the summer looking for signs of urgency, the questions waiting for Trajan Langdon are pretty straightforward. Detroits offseason has been quiet, the roster still feels unfinished, and the conversation has circled back to the same core issue for a team trying to build around Cade Cunningham: whether the front office did enough to add the kind of help that changes the tone of a season.
Langdon is also expected to face more pointed questions about Jalen Duren, whose contract talks have lingered in the background as the Pistons sort through their next steps. With speculation still hanging over Detroits pursuit of bigger names and more proven scoring, the tension is less about what has already happened than what the organization actually tried to make happen, and whether the teams long-term plan is as clear as it needs to be. [Read more 🡒]