Jalen Duren is staying in Detroit. The 22-year-old All-Star center agreed on Thursday night to a five-year, $200 million fully guaranteed contract with the Pistons, ending a four-month restricted free agency standoff that carried through the summer and into the start of training camp.
Agent Chafie Fields of THE•TEAM confirmed the agreement to ESPN's Shams Charania. Duren had remained unsigned entering camp, skipped media day and sat out early practices after declining the same $200 million package when Detroit first put it on the table two weeks earlier. He accepted the standing offer ahead of the 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday deadline for a one-year, $9.6 million qualifying offer that would have made him an unrestricted free agent next summer. ESPN noted that no All-NBA or All-Star player has signed a qualifying offer of that kind.
The franchise had spent the summer working toward this number. Detroit's proposals ranged from about $170 million to $190 million before the club settled on the fully guaranteed $200 million figure, and Bleacher Report noted that The Athletic had reported the five-year framework during the talks. Sources told Charania that Duren's camp also objected to how the process compared with teammate Ausar Thompson's five-year, $155 million extension, and to weight clauses in earlier offers. Yahoo Sports framed the outcome as taking the high-risk gamble of the one-year qualifying offer off the table.
