The standoff is over. Jalen Duren is back in Detroit. Pistons fans can finally shift their focus to the season ahead now that their core that won 60 games last season is back together.
Duren ended up signing a five-year, $200 million contract. Removing all the drama and blocking all the noise around the situation, did the Pistons do a good job of securing this deal?
Putting Jalen Duren's new contract into context
It's important to note that 22-year-olds who just made an All-NBA team rarely sign deals less than their max. In fact, Nate Duncan pointed on X that the previous 34 players who made an All-Star team on their rookie-scale contracts all signed max contracts. Duren was eligible for a five-year, $287 million contract, so the $87 million discount the Pistons got over five years is very significant.
At the same time, context matters. This is a different cap environment. The Pistons have generally been hesitant to pay the luxury tax, and now the aprons make roster-building much harder for teams that aren't willing to spend.
Plus, there was Duren's playoff performance. Coming off one of the most disappointing postseason performances in recent memory, Duren was never going to get paid like a true All-NBA-caliber player. Moreover, thanks to the 65-game rule, the threshold to make an All-NBA team is lower now.
Yet, that shouldn't take away from the season Duren just had. If the Pistons hadn't made the playoffs, or if Duren had missed them with an injury, he probably could have gotten at least his 25% max, which was a five-year, $239 million contract. He was an incredibly efficient scorer last season who also took major strides on the defensive side of the ball.
Duren is making $40 million per year on his new deal. There will be seven centers and 46 players in total in the NBA who have a higher average annual value on their contracts. One can reasonably expect Duren to play at a higher level than that for the duration of his deal, given his career trajectory so far.
This is undeniably a team-friendly contract for the Pistons. But it comes at a cost. In order to get Duren on a favorable deal, the Pistons had to sacrifice the relationship they had with him. Things would have gone much more smoothly, and Duren would have been much happier if the Pistons had just signed him to his 25% max right away.
Sometimes that is the price you have to pay to get a good deal. Now, you have to trust your organization to be able to mend the relationship between the two sides.
At the end of the day, this is the nature of negotiations. Duren wanted to get the best deal for himself, and the Pistons wanted to get him on the most favorable contract possible. If both sides can agree to move forward without any hard feelings, this contract has a chance to be a very good one.
Grade: B+
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