{"id":819971,"date":"2026-08-20T14:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819971\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T14:30:12","slug":"john-hollinger-pistons-need-to-know-jalen-durens-number-before-finalizing-path-for-ausar-thompson-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/819971\/","title":{"rendered":"John Hollinger: Pistons need to know Jalen Duren’s number before finalizing path for Ausar Thompson deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

If Jalen Duren’s negotiations drag on as long as they can, how would that affect Ausar Thompson’s potential rookie-scale extension? John Hollinger: I see two dominoes here. First, the Pistons need to know what Duren’s number will be on their books in 2028 and 2029 before they can finalize their cap planning and determine their best path for Thompson’s next deal. Second, there is an important question of which player they value more, one that will play out rather publicly if Thompson inks an extension shortly after Duren’s deal is completed.<\/a> Of course, it’s possible that, as with Duren, Detroit doesn’t agree with Thompson on an extension and he becomes a restricted free agent next summer. \u2014 8\/20\/2026 New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Fullcourtpass: There’s a lot of people within the Pistons organization that view Ausar Thompson as the second best player on the team and not Jalen Duren,<\/a> per @VinceGoodwill This has affected Duren negotiations with the Pistons<\/a> \u2014 8\/10\/2026 x.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Stewart said he believes Jalen Duren should be rewarded. “It’s tricky, but [Duren] proved he’s worth what he’s asking for to the organization, if you ask me,” Stewart said. “They act like they want him to prove it [before last season], and I felt he proved it. He was an All-Star, third-team All-NBA. I feel like he should get paid. He’s a huge core piece. Bring him back. \u2026<\/a> “He’s been getting better every year. Third-year All-Star? Like come on, give him the bag. But at the same time, I hope it works out and I hope he gets that money at the end of the day.” \u2014 8\/9\/2026 Andscape<\/a><\/p>\n

Sabonis<\/a> had season-ending surgery on a partially torn meniscus later that month, and the Kings revisited trade talks surrounding him this summer. Perry visited with restricted free agent center Jalen Duren in early July and explored the idea of a sign-and-trade swap of big men, but the Detroit Pistons balked at the idea of losing Duren for Sabonis,<\/a> league sources said. \u2014 8\/5\/2026 ESPN<\/a><\/p>\n

League sources say Watson, like Detroit’s Jalen Duren, has been weighing the unappealing prospect of playing out the 2026-27 season on a qualifying offer with the intent to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.<\/a> Actually doing so, mind you, means leaving millions on the table. \u2014 7\/27\/2026 marcstein.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Shams Charania: “It seems both sides are dug in on their positioning. The Pistons have a level, a threshold that they have for Jalen Duren. Jalen Duren clearly wants more than that. And so they are, I mean technically there’s not really a level of urgency quite yet. We’re still late July. We haven’t even hit August yet. This will go into August, well into August potentially. Would not surprise anyone involved in these negotiations if it does even go till September.<\/a> The deadline is really media day. So we’ll see when Jalen Duren and his reps and the Pistons can find some common ground here.” \u2014 7\/27\/2026 YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Sprinkle in Wembanyama<\/a>‘s “discount,” which came at the worst possible time for a rival player in negotiations, and it’s easy to see the Pistons’ hesitancy as well as Jalen Duren’s gripe. You know it’s rocky when your starting center takes a meeting with another team (Lakers<\/a>) only for said team to immediately turn around and bring in someone else (Kessler). We’re talking about a multi-million dollar difference in valuation between player and organization \u2014 this could take a while (something you definitely haven’t heard elsewhere today!). “They’re just going to sit and stare at each other,” said one executive. “It’s a staring contest.<\/a> Sounds like he wants more.” \u2014 7\/24\/2026 Yahoo! Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

The largest proposed deal was $230 million over five years. Two executives considered $200 million over five years to be fair. The two other five-year deals were for $190 million and $180 million. The person who suggested the $190 million contract referenced the Pistons’ other priorities from earlier in the summer, when they were reportedly preparing to offer guard Austin Reaves<\/a> a four-year, $177 million contract before he re-upped with the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>. “If they were willing to give a max to Reaves, then they should be willing to do five years, $190 million for a younger player who made All-NBA at a more valuable position,” the respondent said<\/a>. \u2014 7\/23\/2026 New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

The Athletic polled 13 members of rival front offices, asking what they would consider a “fair” contract for Duren. Respondents spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation freely. The Pistons’ leverage is that no other team has the cap space to offer Duren a rich contract. But Duren’s leverage is that he can accept the qualifying offer, which would entail returning to Detroit on a one-year, $9.6 million contract and becoming an unrestricted free agent next summer, able to sign with whomever he’d like in 2027. “While Detroit might look like they have most of the leverage, given that there are no cap-space teams out there, they’re royally f\u2014\u2013 if he takes the qualifying (offer) and walks next year,” one respondent to the poll said. “So, I think leverage is relatively even.”<\/a> \u2014 7\/23\/2026 New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake Fischer: Jalen Duren has been out of the cards for Sacramento<\/a> from the very beginning. They had interest there, of course, but there’s never gonna be a sign-and-trade that Detroit would have been willing to function, and we’re still getting that intel, we could take this to Jalen Duren as well: Still receiving word out of Detroit that the Pistons have zero interest in playing ball in any sign-and-trade scenario that would deliver their franchise center out of Detroit<\/a>. \u2014 7\/22\/2026 Bleacher Report<\/a><\/p>\n

Marc Stein: “The priorities for the Pistons this summer is to re-sign Duren and to do an extension with Ausar Thompson.<\/a> And we haven’t even talked about restricted free agency that there are some really good restricted free agents. Duren, your guy Peyton Watson<\/a>, Walker Kessler<\/a>, who of course we know the Lakers would love to try to acquire if possible.” \u2014 6\/29\/2026 YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n

Omari Sankofa II: Langdon smiled when asked about extension talks with Duren and Thompson: “There haven’t been, at this point \u2026 and to be honest you’ll never know how those conversations are going.”<\/a> \u2014 6\/18\/2026 x.com<\/a><\/p>\n

“We all want to get better,” he said. “I can’t stand here and say we don’t want to get better, so getting better means you’ve gotta win the second round to get better. It doesn’t necessarily mean we need to win 64 games, I don’t think we’re trying to do that though if we do that would be fantastic. But I think we know that we need to be more equipped to compete in the postseason and that’s what we’re looking at doing. Like I already said, it’s adding pieces that help accentuate our three best players, our core three players, and I think that will help us in the regular season and postseason as well. That all goes into the belief we feel like we can be better.”<\/a> \u2014 6\/18\/2026 Detroit Free Press<\/a><\/p>\n

League sources say that the Pistons, meanwhile, are expected to focus on potential trade additions rather than free agent targets when it comes to bolstering their shooting so as not to further complicate tricky looming contract extension negotiations with restricted free agent-to-be Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson, who will be rookie scale contract extension eligible from July 6 until the eve of Opening Night in October<\/a>. \u2014 6\/14\/2026 marcstein.substack.com<\/a><\/p>\n

NBA Communications: The 2025-26 Kia NBA All-Defensive First Team:<\/a> \u25aa\ufe0f Rudy Gobert<\/a>, @Timberwolves<\/a> \u25aa\ufe0f Chet Holmgren<\/a>, @okcthunder \u25aa\ufe0f Ausar Thompson, @DetroitPistons \u25aa\ufe0f Victor Wembanyama, @spurs \u25aa\ufe0f Derrick White<\/a>, @celtics<\/a> \u2014 5\/22\/2026 Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n