It has been over two months since the Detroit Pistons' season came to an end, but there hasn't been any significant progress in contract negotiations with Jalen Duren. In fact, NBA insider Marc Stein called the progress "modest" in his column on Sunday. This isn't an ideal place to be for the Pistons and their star center.
So far, the Pistons have been adamant in their unwillingness to engage in sign-and-trade scenarios. This was an understandable approach early on in restricted free agency. The Pistons had the leverage and seemed confident in their ability to come to an agreement with Duren.
At this point of the offseason, this position is becoming increasingly untenable. The fact that there has been so little progress in negotiations suggests that the sides are far from one another in terms of contract value. If the Pistons aren't willing to budge, then they have no choice but to at least entertain sign-and-trade opportunities.
It's time Pistons entertained sign-and-trade options for Jalen Duren
One has to assume that if the Pistons were willing to go up to a $40 million per year valuation, this deal would have gotten done already. Instead, Detroit is playing hardball and is trying to extract as much value as it can from the negotiations.
If Duren is also not willing to give the Pistons a significant discount, we may be looking at a stalemate that could last for a long time.
This will gradually increase the possibility of Duren taking his qualifying offer and playing on a one-year, $9.6 million deal. This would be ill-advised and risky, but if he reaches a point of frustration with the franchise, it shouldn't be ruled out. If he does that, the Pistons would likely have no choice but to re-sign him next summer. At that point, they would lose Duren for nothing in unrestricted free agency.
Not only that, but this would completely sever the relationship between the 22-year-old center and the organization. It's hard to imagine he would play at the level he played at last season. Or, his priorities could be competing against the goals of the franchise.
Even if the Pistons are able to squeeze every last dollar out of Duren and get him to sign a deal towards the end of the offseason, it carries the risk of seriously alienating and pissing Duren off. If he feels forced to sign a two-or-three-year deal for far less guaranteed money than he initially thought, he will likely feel underappreciated by the franchise. This could lead to him eventually looking for ways to get out of Detroit.
If this is a real possibility, why wouldn't the Pistons look to see what they can get for him this summer? The Utah Jazz were able to get two first-round picks and two first-round pick swaps from the Lakers for Walker Kessler.
Sure, the market is not the same, and there may not be a team as desperate as the Lakers to make that type of swing for a center, but Duren is also much better than Kessler. There will be teams interested in acquiring a 22-year-old All-NBA player. If the Pistons don't actually value him at a $40 million per year range, then it makes sense for them to get assets back for him from a team that does.
Re-signing Duren still makes the most sense for the Pistons. They will have no way of replacing him, and losing him would make their path to title contention very difficult. However, if the sides are so far apart in these negotiations as the reporting suggests, it behooves the Pistons to at least listen to what teams are willing to offer.
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