Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons officially ended their restricted free agency standoff on Thursday night when the All-Star center agreed to a five-year, $200 million deal, ESPN reported. Duren, 22, is coming off a third-team All-NBA season and had until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday to accept a $9.6 million qualifying offer or sign a long-term deal with the franchise.
Duren and the Pistons had been engaged in contentious negotiations since the end of the season, but reached an agreement a few days after the team began training camp. Duren was eligible for a five-year, $287 million max-salary deal. But after a disappointing postseason performance, Detroit's offer came in at significantly less.
Instead of taking a major risk by signing the qualifying offer, which would have allowed him to become an unrestricted free agent in 2027, Duren has re-upped with the franchise that selected him at No. 13 overall in the 2022 NBA Draft. Duren reportedly felt disrespected throughout the process, including with the team's apparent inclusion of a weight clause in a recent contract offer. That clause, which would have required Duren to check his weight monthly with the team, was removed from the deal earlier this week, according to The Athletic.
Though the negotiations became bumpy, accepting the qualifying offer would have been risky for Duren on multiple levels, as explained by CBS Sports' Sam Quinn: Doing so based on Detroit's current offer would offer no financial gain. Based on current cap projections, a four-year max deal in free agency from anyone besides the Pistons would pay Duren $189.2 million. If you include his $9.6 million qualifying offer, Duren would therefore stand to make up to $198.8 million or so over the next five seasons, which is less than what the Pistons are reportedly offering.
Detroit's offer is presumably on the table now, whereas this approach would force Duren to play out this season and risk hurting his value through either injury or performance. In other words, there's a lot of risk and nothing to gain financially. Early in the free agency period, Duren took meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings, but very few teams had the cap space to offer him a max offer sheet that Detroit would've likely matched anyway.
The Lakers had the means to make a run at Duren, but instead pivoted to a sign-and-trade with Walker Kessler, formerly of the Utah Jazz. The Kings were among the teams that reportedly showed interest in a sign-and-trade with Detroit, but the Pistons reportedly were not interested in engaging in those talks, making a reunion for less than the max the most likely outcome. Despite waiting until the final day of the qualifying offer deadline to sign a contract, the timing of the move is not uncommon.
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