Jalen Duren’s Game 5 Benching Could Cost Him Millions, but Will Also Save the Pistons a Ton of Money

Jalen Duren made $6.68 million this season in the final year of the rookie contract he signed after the Pistons took him with the No. 13 pick in the 2022 NBA draft. He immediately made an impact averaging 9.1 points and 8.9 assists in 24.9 minutes a game as a rookie. After two more solid seasons Duren made a leap this year, averaging 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds and was named an All-Star as the Pistons won 60 games and earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

In a first round series the Pistons nearly lost against the Magic, Duren averaged just 10.6 points per game, but still got his usual rebounds, assists, blocks and steals and in Game 7 he had 15 and 15.

In the current series against the Cavaliers he continued to regress. He averaged just 9.5 points and 11 rebounds as the Pistons took Game 1 and 2, but stopped rebounding as Detroit dropped the next three games.

Things hit rock bottom on Wednesday night as he was benched for the entire fourth quarter and overtime despite only having two fouls. He was replaced by "BBall" Paul Reed who had sat the first three quarters and then played the final 17 minutes while Duren watched from the bench.

Reed finished with 10 points and eight rebounds in those 17 minutes compared to Duren's nine and five in 25 minutes. After the game Duren brushed off questions about being frustrated, saying, "I think my brothers handled it. BBall came in ready to go, did his thing. As long as we get the win I'm good."

The thing is, no matter how this series or the rest of the playoffs go, Duren may have cost himself a ton of money already. Duren will enter restricted free agency when the season ends. After an All-Star season he was probably thinking about a max deal, or at least something approaching one.

All-NBA teams will be announced soon and if he's on one, which he should be, he'll be eligible for a deal where he makes 30% of the salary cap. The cap is currently projected to be $165 million which means he could sign a deal worth just under $50 million for next season alone with a five-year deal worth about $287 million.

His on-court numbers have certainly disappeared at this point. So the question becomes how much is Duren worth to another team who needs a potential 20-and-10 guy who doesn't shoot the ball unless he's near the basket? That didn't seem like much of a concern this season, but once the paint scoring disappears, the lack of outside shooting suddenly seems glaring. Duren shot just 48 of his 895 field goal attempts from 10 feet and farther out this year. He's only attempted six three-pointers in his career and hasn't attempted a three since April 2024.

Obviously, Duren isn't worth a max deal for the Pistons so the question becomes what is the market for a big man who doesn't shoot threes in the modern NBA? It seems that the market will determine what he gets as some other team will have to make him an offer that the Pistons either will or won't match to bring him back.

Rudy Gobert is averaging a similar 10.9 pts and 11.5 rebounds during this postseason and is currently playing on a 3-year, $110 million deal. Deandre Ayton also put up comparable numbers and has a player option for $8.1 million this summer.

But the world needs rebounders. Duren has done that his entire career and he's an available 22-year-old All-Star who is probably about to be named second or third team All-NBA. Someone is going to offer him more than $100 million this offseason, the question is who and how many years.

The Pistons can still win this series. Duren can still bounce back and he can continue to contribute to a winning team as he has for the last two seasons. At something like $25 million to $30 million a year that might seem like a lot, but it will be a steep discount from the nearly $50 million he was probably dreaming of just a few weeks ago. Duren might have lost a lot of money during this postseason, but the Pistons probably saved a lot and will have some more cap flexibility than they were expecting as the regular season was ending.

Maybe that will ease the pressure on Duren and allow him to play better next year once he and his young teammates have some more playoff experience and when he hits free agency again in his prime he can make it all back. Now that would be a quality rebound.

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