Time to put some big boy pants and do something. You’re the 5th or 6th best team in the east. You aren’t beating the nuggets? Thunder or spurs in 7. You won 60 last year but barley beat a team missing their 2nd best player. I also dont think their better as well. Losing stew one of best rim protectors in leauge and Harris the leader off team is going to hurt more then people think. Who is back to Collins btw i also dont think he is a starter
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Where did you think they would finish the regular season in the east last year?
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I have them at 5th or 6th. Depending on the magic
Interesting to see how this plays out. No written document of a prior agreement has been (or likely will be) found. I don’t think any front office could be that dumb. Even text messages would be mega-level stupid.
Milwaukee could argue he’s a locker room leader, blah blah. Hell, they could even argue that they wanted to thank him for outplaying his previous contracts. That’s not a prior agreement.
I don’t see how the NBA can prove there was a prior agreement, unless they can get into cell phone recordings.
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fair point…third or 4th at best. but miami, philly have gotten better. haliburton will beback for the pacers. the magic if healthy showed they are at least as good as us. washington will be no gimme anymore, with dybansta, saar, and the eyebrow. knicks, celts are still there.
our moves are very marginal. collins for harris, joe for lavert, prince for sasser, ?? for stewart. Those are treading water moves.
Duren is not going to be happy, will he play not to get hurt? maybe JB can will this team to a 3 or 4 seed but if we do nothing else you have to be thinking we’re not winning 60 again.
Yep, same
.maybe 4th because they played the Knicks pretty tough in thr playoffs
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Still no news on JD. Pistons waiting for baby to sign till they make a deal
RFAs in the NBA can take forever to sign. This Duren situation isn’t completely new.
At this point, JDs agent is not serving him very well. Granted, I don’t know what Detroits offer is, but JD turning down a potential 5 year $150-175M dollar deal because he wants the max is not the smartest decision. By now you would have thought Jalen would have come to the conclusion that he is not getting the max from any team.
Sounds shaky with his agent.
Pistons are interested in DeRozan. Another guard
Saw this earlier but he’s not the kind of guy you want for spacing but he is a Savvy veteran scorer and a far better basketball player than Duncan Robinson. He’s a true secondary ball handler not a guy you want initiating the offense but somebody who can take the pressure off of the main ball handler for some of the time they both share the floor, and when Dennis comes in and runs the offense won’t be a problem either.
Now dude will be 37 in 3 weeks, so this is not a long-term solution it’s probably not a two-year solution but a one year patch, and maybe they use this as a bridge to next year’s free agency if they have cap space to use in it.
At this point if they add him and Joe, Huerter and Collins in FA along with Okorie and Terry Tyler 2.0 in the draft….losing Stew, UnkT, LaVert and Sasser….it’s a net upgrade offseason but still a C+/B-
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The spatial intelligence is off the charts. Just a rare understanding of on court geometry. And he doesn’t turn 20 until April. He’s going to make @HSVLion happily eat his draft thread frustration words.
https://x.com/detroitpistons/status/2078308006630965426?s=46
He might get killed on D for a bit though. Looks a ways away from NBA strength.
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He looks good, I watched a clip of all his buckets that game. Based on that clip, the guy playing D on him looks like he will be serving fries in a couple months though. Yeesh
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I like that he doesn’t turn the ball over. he’ll def be in the rotation this year. Going to be interesting to see how his and Daniss’s minutes shake out.
Ugonna, on the other hand, can’t play basketball (yet). He needs a full year in the G-league. Tolu is our third center for sure.
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# The 1 reason Pistons and Jalen Duren are in contract standoff
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It’s not a question of affordability, but flexibility. Teams over the second apron, for example, lose access to the mid-level exception – which the Pistons used this summer to bring in sharpshooter Isaiah Joe without having to give up salary in return. They’re barred from trading cash – the method in which the Pistons acquired a second-round pick to take big man Ugonna Onyenso in June’s draft. They can’t sign-and-trade – how the Pistons landed John Collins from the Los Angeles Clippers – either.
It has forced the front office, along with the rest of the league, to think hard about the value of a maximum contract. The Pistons already have Cade Cunningham entering the second season of a five-year supermax worth $269 million. They also want to extend Ausar Thompson, who is fresh off an All-Defensive first-team selection and finishing third in Defensive Player of the Year voting – a DPOY win would make him eligible for a supermax deal as well – as the final member of their “Big 3” this summer.
The Pistons have concluded they can’t afford all three unless they pay Duren his market rate, which is well under the max. The Spurs similarly saw Wembanyama accept less money – he signed for the 25% max rather than negotiating a 30% supermax escalator – to help them can one day extend two of their other young stars, Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper.
On the other hand, the Celtics learned the hard way with Brown and Jayson Tatum. Each is on the veteran’s version of the supermax, which allowed them to start a contract at 35% of the salary cap in Year 1. The Celtics determined they couldn’t afford to continue paying both superstars on long-term deals and remain a title contender – though they nearly were able to deal Brown for Giannis Antetokounmpo, who makes slightly more.
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After several salary clearing moves this offseason, the Pistons now have the ability to pay Duren a contract starting at the 25% max next season while still staying under the luxury tax. There are alternatives to offering the full 25% max that the Pistons could pursue, such as a declining salary or a shorter contract that would allow Duren to test the market unfettered sooner.
They currently have roughly $154 million on the books for 2026-27, about $46 million less than the $200 million luxury tax threshold, $55 million under the $209 million first apron and more than $67 million under the $221.7 million second apron. They likely will try to stay under the tax next season, before an extension for Thompson would kick in entering the 2027-28 season.
It’s unclear how the standoff between the 22-year-old Duren and the Pistons will be wrapped up. Duren’s market clearly has dried up. His only other option – perhaps the nuclear option – is accepting the $9.62 million qualifying offer for the 2026-27 season and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer.
The Pistons want Duren back. They want him to be happy. They will find out if there’s a number that can get them there, without compromising the flexibility they need to both accommodate Thompson and build out the rest of their roster in the years to come.
The real problem?
We didn’t negotiate with Cade. We can’t walk that contract back. Wemby, on the other hand, was astute enough to see how a sustainable winner can be built in the NBA. They’ll pay their three (Wemby, Castle and Harper) max contracts, even though they might not be the absolute max possible. We paid Cade the absolute max possible, and now have to play hardball with Duren.
So Duren will either sign the QO to get paid next year. Or accept less and possibly play not to get hurt. Wemby really made a historic move to keep his team together and happy. Cade didn’t.
Do you think Cade is overpaid?
LOL, such an innocent question. Technically he’s not overpaid by NBA standards. What i’m pointing out is that Wemby accepted a discount that allows his team to put out a more competitive team. Cade did not do that. Its now a disadvantage for the Pistons (relative to the Spurs and other teams who have one of their three top earners accept less, like the Rockets and Durant). It is what it is.
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