Jalen Duren’s postseason struggles may have changed Detroit’s timeline
Detroit has some questions to answer.
Jalen Duren’s postseason struggles may have changed Detroit’s timeline originally appeared on The Sporting News . Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here . For most of the regular season, Jalen Duren looked like one of the NBA’s next young stars ready to secure a massive max extension.
Then the playoffs arrived, and suddenly the conversation around the Detroit Pistons center became much more complicated. In his latest ESPN free agency rankings, Bobby Marks projected Duren to sign a five-year, $180 million extension with Detroit. While that is still franchise-level money, it is significantly below the type of supermax-level projection Duren appeared headed toward after his breakout regular season.
The shift largely comes back to how dramatically his production declined during the playoffs. Duren averaged a career-high 19. 5 points during the regular season and dominated opponents in the paint.
He became the first player since Charles Barkley in the late 1980s to record multiple games with at least 30 points, 10 rebounds and 80 percent shooting in the same season. Detroit also consistently performed better with him on the floor throughout the year. But the postseason exposed areas where Duren still needs development.