Jalen Duren Is Unsigned With Time Running Out
· Yahoo Sports
One of the biggest concerns for the Detroit Pistons as the 2026-27 NBA season approaches is that center Jalen Duren is still unsigned. He is a restricted free agent, and with Sept. 10 here, the Jalen Duren contract situation has turned into a standoff with a hard deadline attached.
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Duren was the Pistons’ second-best player in 2025-26, and he is only 22 years old. In 70 games he averaged 19.5 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 blocks and 0.8 steals per game. A season like that usually gets paid right away.
Duren Is Not the First to Wait This Long
He is not the first restricted free agent to sit unsigned deep into an offseason. Josh Giddey agreed to a four-year, $100 million deal with the Chicago Bulls on Sept. 9, 2025, and Jonathan Kuminga agreed to a two-year, $48.5 million deal with the Golden State Warriors on Sept. 30 that same year.
The difference this time is the clock. Duren has until Oct. 1 to accept his one-year, $9.6 million qualifying offer. ESPN reported on Sept. 1 that Duren is seeking a five-year deal averaging more than $40 million a year, while Detroit has offered roughly $35 million a year, and that the two sides are still far apart. Accepting the qualifying offer would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer, and Detroit would lose the right to match.
Why the Jalen Duren Contract Standoff Is Different
Aaron Kellerstrass of PistonPowered laid out why this one has no real precedent. He wrote:
“The big difference between Duren and those listed above (along with Eric Bledsoe, who also held out until late September recently) is that he is not only 22 years old, but made both the All-Star and All-NBA teams last season.
We’ve never seen a player of his age and accolades fail to get a contract, and in most cases, it came right away.
But Duren is special in a couple of other ways that have prevented the Pistons from just rubber stamping his deal as they may have done in the past.
The first is that Duren probably shouldn’t have made the All-NBA team but did because there were so many players who were ineligible due to not reaching the minimum for games played.
That’s not Duren’s fault, and you can’t penalize him for things out of his control, but we also can’t act like those awards mean as much when there were so many mainstays left out.”
Duren was an All-Star in 2026 and made the All-NBA Third Team in May, alongside first-team pick Cade Cunningham.
The Playoff Numbers Cut the Other Way
One reason a deal may not be done yet is what happened in the spring. In 14 postseason games, Duren averaged 10.2 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 blocks and 0.6 steals per game before Detroit’s run ended in the second round against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
His scoring fell by more than nine points a game from the regular season to the playoffs. That is the case Detroit can make at the table. It is not a case for letting a 22-year-old All-NBA center walk. President of basketball operations Trajan Langdon and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff need Duren in the building before Oct. 1, not after it.