While the talks themselves may be stalled, rumors about where they stand continue to flow.
The latest report, from Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The Athletic, adds two notes to the discourse:
• The latest offer from the Pistons is in the five-year, $190 million total “range.” It’s worth noting that we don’t know what player or team options are attached to that contract, which impacts its value. Did the Pistons up their offer from the five-year, $175 million ESPN reported about a week ago, or is this more semantics (the final figure depending on incentives or how the deal is structured)?
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• The Houston Rockets just gave their young star Amen Thompson a five-year, $208 million extension. Thompson, a rising star due for a breakout, is close to a Duren comp, although Duren’s camp would quickly point out that Thompson has yet to be an All-Star or All-NBA player, and Duren is both. Houston gave center Alperen Sengun a five-year, $185 million extension last summer.
What Duren and his camp have made clear from the start is that they expect $200 million — $40 million a season average salary — in this deal. The Pistons have been unwilling to go there. So far. The Pistons do not want to enter the luxury tax and are currently $46 million below that line for next season, although an Ausar Thompson extension is looming and Detroit is looking ahead to how to afford him, Duren and Cade Cunningham.
Duren’s ultimate leverage is taking the $9.6 million qualifying offer, which makes him an unrestricted free agent after this season and gives him veto power over any trade the Pistons try to make.
That is a massive risk, however. There’s money left on the table: Even the Pistons’ $190 million offer is guaranteed generational wealth. Beyond that, injury or a rough season for whatever reason could damage his value on future contracts. A max offer next summer is not guaranteed.
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What gives Duren confidence he’ll make the money back is that three “serious suitors” for him, according to The Athletic. That means those teams likely would pay him the max. We know one of those is the Sacramento Kings, which would want to pair Duren with just-drafted Darius Acuff Jr. as the foundation for their future (the Kings tried to talk sign-and-trade with the Pistons, but Detroit has shut all such inquiries down).
On top of that is the bad blood built up in these negotiations, with league sources telling NBC Sports the negotiations were “noxious.” Duren and the Pistons couldn’t reach terms on an extension last summer, then he had a breakout season and his price went up. While he unquestionably struggled in the playoffs, this is still an elite 22-year-old center who is a force on both ends of the court, and those guys are hard to come by. He is a foundation of what the Pistons are building and they can’t let him just walk out the door (if he plays for the qualifying offer, Detroit has to look to trade him at the deadline or before).
Plus, all of this can spill over into a locker room that was tight a year ago when the team won 60 games.
Things will get interesting in a few weeks when Pistons training camp opens. Will the sides reach an extension by then? If not, will Duren be there and talk to the media? The qualifying offer deadline is Oct. 1, although the Pistons can push that back to March 1.
However this is ultimately resolved, it’s going to leave scars. All of which seemingly could have been avoided.
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