The free agency craze is over, and teams around the league have built their rosters for the 2025-26 season, including the Detroit Pistons. Fans shouldn't expect significant transactions before the season as the Pistons are likely to begin the campaign with their current core.
That doesn't mean, however, that the front office doesn't have important decisions to make. The Pistons have until October 20th to decide on the futures of Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, and Marcus Sasser. Ivey and Duren are extension-eligible as they enter the fourth and final year of their rookie-scale contracts. Sasser has a team option for the 2026-27 season, and Detroit has to either pick it up or decline it.
Pistons Should Sign Jaden Ivey to a Contract Extension
The Pistons are in no hurry to extend Ivey and Duren's contracts. The wait-and-see approach they have adopted so far makes some sense, as they ideally would want to have more of an evaluation period before making a lucrative, long-term commitment. At the same time, however, this risks alienating the players and pushing the price of an extension higher if they perform well next season.
This is a bigger risk for Ivey's situation that the Pistons have to consider. It is understandable that the Pistons wouldn't want to commit to Ivey right away after he suffered a broken fibula on January 1st and missed most of the season. Yet, Ivey's extended absence last season also presents an opportunity for the Pistons.
Instead of overthinking the extension decision, the Pistons would be wise to lock Ivey up to a team-friendly contract. The injury concerns surrounding the 23-year-old combo guard could give Detroit leverage in negotiations and allow them to get a discount.
Before he got hurt, Ivey had taken a big step last season, averaging 17.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.0 assists on 46.0/40.9/73.3 shooting splits. Even though it was in a smaller sample size of only 30 games, Ivey was on his way to his most efficient and productive season of his career. If he were to pick up where he left off next season, the Pistons may not be able to sign him to anything less than the 25% of the salary cap maximum extension.
Signing him to an extension now should give the Pistons more financial flexibility going forward. If Detroit can get Ivey to sign a deal around the ballpark of four years, $120 million, they shouldn't miss the opportunity to do so.