The staring contest between Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons has yet to come to an end. With only two months left before the start of the season, Duren remains a restricted free agent. He has until October 1st to pick up his qualifying offer, which is essentially the deadline for this stalemate to come to a resolution.
This has been a frustrating process for everyone involved, including the fans. It adds a level of uncertainty to the present and the future of the team that makes a lot of fans uncomfortable. However, it's safe to say that not many in the league see Duren as a potential flight risk.
Despite the long stalemate, all signs still point to Jalen Duren staying in Detroit
The Athletic's Hunter Patterson and John Hollinger discussed the latest in the Duren saga. Hollinger discussed his insights from working as the VP of basketball operations for the Grizzlies and how his experiences with restricted free agency can shed light on the Duren situation.
Hollinger's words confirmed what many NBA watchers already knew. Restricted free agency almost always goes this way. "Coller heads prevail" after long negotiations because both sides have a ton of incentive to get a deal done. Hollinger added that he expects the same from the Duren-Pistons stalemate.
The risk for Duren is simply too high. His qualifying offer is only $9.6 million. This means that he will be leaving around $20 million on the table, an amount Hollinger says he "might never make it back." This isn't going to stop Duren from pretending like he might take the qualifying offer, but the injury risk might just be too high. And it's just really difficult to say no to nine-figure, life-changing money.
The Athletic's reporting makes it clear that there aren't any active suitors for Duren. There is no cap space around the league, and the Pistons have expressed no desire to engage in sign-and-trade discussions. Besides the qualifying offer, Duren doesn't have any other leverage.
Yet, Hollinger and Patterson pointed to an interesting possibility where Duren turns the situation into a holdout scenario where he doesn't show up for training camp. Things could get even uglier if it dragged into the regular season. Hollinger said that this is the only scenario where he would start to get worried.
Is Duren really going to be willing to burn the bridges to that degree? At that point, the relationship between the two sides may reach a point of no return. Then the Pistons would have no choice but to discuss sign-and-trade scenarios.
However, there is still plenty of middle ground that the All-Star center and the Pistons can meet. A 25% max is more of a pipe dream at this point for Duren, but he is still deserving of a contract that pays him around $35 million per year.
There seems to be confidence around the league and the media that a deal around that salary level is still feasible. As frustrating as this has been, Pistons fans have to be patient. If the history of restricted free agency repeats itself once again, Duren will sign a new contract with Detroit between now and October 1st.
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