Hey there, Last Night In Basketballers — I am, as I do every year, re-appropriating the Three Things I Noticed on League Pass format to preview the upcoming season. Instead of three things I noticed, it’ll be something more along the lines of three things I’m looking forward to, interested in, or want to see. Some of them might be narrative-based, some might be stats, and some might include video. But they'll all be focused on the 2026-27 campaign.
The schedule for those posts will be as follows (podcasts previewing each division with Mo Dakhil are in parentheses):
- Atlantic Division (BOS, BKN, NYK, PHI, TOR) (Podcast)
- Central Division (CHI, CLE, DET, IND, MIL) (Podcast)
- Southeast Division (ATL, CHA, MIA, ORL, WAS) (Podcast)
- Pacific Division (GSW, LAC, LAL, PHX, SAC) (Podcast)
- Northwest Division (DEN, MIN, OKC, POR, UTA) (Podcast)
- Southwest Division (DAL, HOU, MEM, NOP, SAS) (Podcast)
So without further ado, let's get to the Detroit Pistons, who underwent some dramatic changes this offseason.
Jalen Duren, the mess-around
If you're reading this newsletter, you obviously know that Duren and the Pistons are locked in a restricted free agency stalemate. The latest reporting from Shams is that the Pistons and Duren are at an impasse and that it's up in the air whether Duren will actually report to training camp and media day next week.
Duren has felt disrespected since last summer, per Shams, when the Pistons offered him a $20 million-per-year "take it or leave it" extension, and still feels disrespected now because the Pistons' offers to him have included incentives like weight clauses. Shams also said, however, that the Pistons have upped their recent offer from the five-year, $180-190 million range to five years, $200 million.
Here's the video:
Shams update on Jalen Duren:
— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) September 21, 2026
"The Pistons and Jalen Duren are at an impasse and it's highly up in the air and questionable as to whether he will be reporting and showing up for media day in just 7 days...over the course of this offseason, his offer from the Pistons has been… pic.twitter.com/TylXSNXcuo
Bumping the offer up to $200 million over five years is notable because based on current projections, the most Duren will be able to get from a non-Pistons team in unrestricted free agency next offseason is somewhere around four years, $189 million. Add in the $9.6 million qualifying offer he could take this year and you get to just south of $199 million. So, the Pistons are ultimately offering ever-so-slightly more than he could get from anyone else over the same time period.
Alas, that doesn't factor in how disrespected Duren feels by his home team trying to squeeze him like this, whether with last summer's lowball offer or this summer's non-max offers or by the latest offers that include incentives and are thus not fully guaranteed. If Duren feels some type of way about all that (and it appears that he does), then it might not matter that they're ultimately offering a mere $1 million more than he can make by taking the qualifying offer and then going leaving for greener (sorry) pastures next summer.
Of course, a whole lot of money tends to heal all wounds in situations like this. And $200 million over five years is a whole lot of money. It's just... not as much money as Duren probably thought he'd be getting after the regular season he put together, when he was a revelation and an All-Star and an All-NBA Third-Teamer.
Duren has shown legitimate progress every year of his career. He's gotten significantly better on offense and still has room to grow into a better defender. He's not yet 23 years old and he's an All-NBA center. It makes sense that he wants to be paid at the very top of the market, and that he feels disrespected by offers that seemingly undervalue him relative to how he performed for most of last year.
But it also makes sense that the Pistons don't want to pay him there. Despite his prodigious skill, Duren is a dependent offensive player, not a creator. He's an okay defender, not one who alone can anchor a top-10 defense. And there have been legitimate with his postseason performance. He got straight up punked in this year's playoffs, and by inferior players.
And of course, the new cap environment doesn't just encourage but practically begs teams to squeeze players in Duren's situation. Players who are really good but probably not quite max level used to just get max deals anyway, because that was just what teams did.
You can't really do that now, because there are so many restrictions on the way you can build your roster once your team salary hits a certain level. It used to just be that you'd have to pay a little (in the grand scheme of things) more money once you hit a certain level of salary. But now there are certain types of trades you can't make and players you can't sign and draft picks you can't move if you hit that level and stay there, and so if teams can find a way to squeeze a few million bucks out of a situation like this, they almost have to do it. It would be irresponsible not to.
I still think this situation ultimately resolves with Duren signing a deal much like the one the Pistons are now reportedly offering, maybe without the incentives attached to his weight so he can save some face. But we're going to be seeing a lot more situations like this in the future, I think, because Duren surely won't be the last close-but-not-quite-max player to not get a max offer and feel disrespected.