Jalen Duren is apparently ready to take a leap of faith.
The restricted free agent center Duren is feeling “emboldened” to take the one-year qualifying offer for next season, Bleacher Report’s Jake Fischer reported on Tuesday. Fischer notes that this is because Duren is confident that he will be getting a max contract next summer from the Sacramento Kings.
Duren, still only 22 years old, remains locked in a contract stalemate with the Pistons after two-and-a-half months and counting of being a free agent. Earlier this week, we learned that Duren was feeling disrespected by Detroit and was now eyeing the Kings as a result.
That might not be a bad bet by Duren as Sacramento is a rebuilding, cap-space-rich team that does not have a true young star to build around. Meanwhile, they will get even more flexibility next summer with Zach LaVine ($49 million) and De’Andre Hunter ($24.9 million) coming off the books and Domantas Sabonis (owed $94.1 million over the next two seasons) looking like a probable trade candidate for the Kings.
But it would also be a very risky bet for Duren. The one-year qualifying offer (worth $9.6 million) is pennies for a young All-Star player of Duren’s caliber, and he would be banking on both a) Sacramento keeping their word in an uncertain NBA landscape that is constantly changing and b) a 2026-27 season in which he neither gets injured nor performs poorly.
That said, there are some other exit strategies on the table for Duren as well. Most notably, he could have strong interest in 2027 from another outside suitor that is not the Kings.
