Jalen Duren and the Detroit Pistons still have a gap to bridge but not as big of one as you might think.
The restricted free agent center Duren is roughly $5 million apart from the Pistons in their ongoing contract talks. Tim MacMahon of ESPN reported on Tuesday that Detroit has offered Duren a five-year deal in the range of $35 million annually.
However, Duren continues to seek a deal with an average salary in excess of $40 million annually. As a result, the two sides are still at a stalemate in their negotiations.
Duren, the 22-year-old All-Star, has gone two full months now as an unsigned free agent. The Pistons, a 60-win team and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference last season with Duren as their starting center, still clearly want to keep him and recently took a notable stance on Duren’s ongoing situation.
A report that we heard several weeks ago even suggested that the Pistons were going slightly above $35 million per year on their offer to Duren. As a result, it looks like Duren and his agent are drawing the (arguably unrealistic) line in the sand of $40 million per year being their number.
Another report even claimed that Duren’s negotiations with the Pistons had turned nasty. Now we know that there is only about a $5 million per year gap (roughly $25 million in total value) that the two sides are squabbling over here.
