ESPN’s Tim McMahon reported 10 days ago what Pistons‘ offer restricted to free agent Jalen Duren was a five-year deal in the range of $35 million per year, which would bring the total to $175 million. However, according to Sam Amick and Hunter Patterson of The AthleticDetroit actually went higher than that, putting an offer on the table for the big man that would be worth around $190 million over five years.
It’s unclear whether that $190 million will be fully guaranteed. Amick and Patterson include a caveat that “the exercise of player or team options in the deal significantly affects the final number,” but they did not say whether the Pistons’ offer included any type of option.
Despite this, Duren is known to be asking for $40 million or more per year, meaning he would like to receive at least $200 million over a five-year deal.
As Amick and Patterson point out, the startup’s five-year, $208 million expansion that Amin Thompson signed last weekwhich also includes a 10% trade kicker, could help strengthen Duren’s negotiating position. While Duren made the All-Star Game and was third-team all-NBA last season, Thompson was handed a $41.6 million-a-year contract without achieving any of the accomplishments.
Although the Pistons are not considering a deal to send Duren to Sacramento, The necklaces Amick and Patterson note that they continue to look like a wild card in the process, as they will have the opportunity to create cap space to sign the young center next summer. The Athletic duo classify the Kings’ interest in Duren as “very strong” and suggest the 22-year-old is intrigued by the idea of teaming up with the rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr in Sacramento.
League sources tell The Athletic that Duren has three “very serious” suitors, including the Kings. If he were to sign his $9.6 million qualifying offer this offseason and then sign a maximum salary contract with one of those contending teams in 2027 as an unrestricted free agent, he would earn a projected $196.7 million over the next five seasons, beginning with his projected max deal with a new team next summer will cost about $187 million over four years.
However, there’s no guarantee that a max salary offer will be waiting for Duren next offseason, especially if he suffers a major injury or his production drops in 2026-27, so passing on the $190 million offer from the Pistons to potentially earn a few million more dollars would be a risky move. But Amick and Patterson say Duren is seriously considering the option, which they confirm reporting by Mark Stein.
According to The Athletic, the Pistons are currently operating about $46 million below the luxury tax line, not including Duren’s cap hit, so even if they were to increase to Max ($41.2 million), they should not worry about exceeding that threshold in 2026/27. However, with a new lucrative contract for Ausar Thompson Also likely on tap, Detroit could be a taxpayer down the road, so the team will want to try to get the best possible price for Duren and Thompson in order to somewhat control their future hits.
Duren has decided to “keep his distance” from the team this summer, according to Amick and Patterson, citing a league source who says the former Memphis Tiger was not part of the minicamp that Cade Cunningham organized in August and did not attend a party earlier this month at the team owner Tom Gores‘house in Southern California.
It remains to be seen if Duren will attend the Pistons’ Sept. 28 event. October 1 this is the deadline for the player to sign his qualifying offer, though the team can push back that deadline if it chooses.