The Sacramento Kings may be headed into the season with Domantas Sabonis still in the middle of everything, but the chatter around Jalen Duren keeps hanging around the edges. Sacramento has been floated as a team to watch if Detroit’s contract standoff with the young center drags into next offseason, and that possibility only feels more real after a busy week in Detroit.
Duren’s situation has stalled out with the Pistons, even after ESPN senior insider Shams Charania reported Monday that Detroit put a five-year, $200 million offer on the table. The sticking point had been believed to be Duren’s ask for $40 million per year, but the offer is still there.
“For him [Duren], it's been all about respect,” Charania said. “For the team, it's just been all about business.
Charania also pointed back to Detroit’s first offer nearly a year ago, when the team reportedly came in at just $20 million. That early number is part of why the current tension has reportedly built up.
Then came another layer to the story: Pistons forward Ausar Thompson landed his own payday, agreeing to a five-year, $155 million rookie-scale extension. With Detroit committing elsewhere, the idea of Duren playing this season on a qualifying offer and chasing his bigger deal next offseason is looking more and more plausible.
That’s where Sacramento enters the picture. The Kings have already been tied to young talent all offseason, with Jonathan Kuminga and Duren both surfacing in the rumor mill. Last Tuesday, The Athletic’s Sam Amick specifically pointed to Sacramento as a place Duren is at least interested in.
“Duren is known to be eyeing the Sacramento Kings as a desirable destination where he could thrive alongside Darius Acuff Jr. as an established building block,” Amick said.
Acuff has been talked up as the Kings’ lead guard of the future, and the fit is easy to see on paper. Duren would bring the kind of play finishers love: a double-double machine and one of the league’s better lob threats in pick-and-roll action.
Last season, he put up 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while appearing in 70 games. He’s also been available, playing in 61 or more games in each of his four NBA seasons.
That’s why a three-team trade idea making the rounds has caught some attention. In the proposal, shared by Kings fan David Johnson on X, Sacramento would send Sabonis and two future first-round picks to the Brooklyn Nets, Detroit would get Michael Porter Jr. and Maxime Raynaud, and the Kings would bring back Duren, Duncan Robinson, and two second-round picks.
For Sacramento, the appeal is obvious: a guard-center pairing for the future and a chance to move off Sabonis’ lucrative expiring contract. Detroit would get offensive help and the flexibility of moving forward with Sabonis on an expiring deal.
Whether the Pistons are willing to reward Duren now or gamble on his next move is still the open question.
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