Silly season was over – all the speculation and rumors.
The business of basketball came to an end.
And Jalen Duren, the Detroit Pistons’ new $200 Million Man, scrolled through his phone, started reading some notes and opened up his heart.
“I'm happy, super ecstatic to be back,” Duren said on Sunday, Oct. 4, at the Pistons' practice facility in Midtown, three days after agreeing to a five-year, $200 million contract
.Duren had missed most of the first week of training camp, while pondering whether to stay in Detroit and grab the $200 million, or sign a $9.6 million qualifying offer and jump to free agency in a year, taking his decision down to the wire – about 90 minutes until the deadline.
Which is no big deal, in my eyes. That’s the business side
of basketball.
“I missed all my guys,” Duren said. “I missed my teammates; I missed my coaches. And I'm just happy to be back around everybody. I'm super excited that we were able to get something done. Super excited for the future. Super excited for the additions, the new additions of the team and ready to just put everything behind us.”
As Duren spoke, there was no sense of bitterness or lingering resentment from a contract drama that lasted an entire offseason. No, there was something else. Something far more important. A sense of introspection. “I can acknowledge my flaws, and more importantly, embrace them,” Duren said. “Last season was obviously some of my highest moments in my career and some of my lowest. I carry myself as a man, so I'm willing to acknowledge that, and I'm willing to turn that frustration, that anger, and whatever I felt towards my play and how things may have ended. I've learned to take time and instead exert my energy and being mad, exert my energy into bettering my craft, enhancing my craft, enhancing my mentality, enhancing everything about me.”
And that might be the most important thing to come from all of this.
Duren still a youngster
Now, for a second, take a step back and consider the big picture.
Duren is still just 22 years old (he’ll turn 23 in November). This was his first time going through a massive contract negotiation. His first time seeing how the sausage gets made.
“There's a business component,” he said. “It took me time to realize and understand because this is my first time going through it, and like I said earlier, I can admit that I have flaws. We all do. We are here to work on them, and I know (Pistons president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon) will continue to help me work on them and become a better man and a better player. I think we just grow from here. I don't think this should be a negative outlook or looked at as something bad has happened. I think we look at it as something great is happening. I'm locked in with a team and a core who has potential that's going through the roof. And I'm super excited for what's to come.”
So, if you acknowledge that he is young and new to this business side, there is something else to consider.
He’s not a finished product on the basketball floor, either.
Which brings us to the low point of 2026.
Duren’s disappointing playoff performance.
Learning from disappointment
Now, consider how Duren's numbers dropped during 14 playoff games as the Pistons lost in seven games to Cleveland in the second round:
- Duren averaged only 10.2 points in the postseason – 9.3 points fewer than his regular-season average, the second-biggest drop by an All-Star in NBA history.
- He shot just 51.4% in the postseason – after hitting 65.0% in the regular season.
- He averaged just 8.5 rebounds – after averaging 11 during the regular season.
- And his Player Efficiency Rating dropped to 13.8 after it was 26.1 during the regular season.
“What's the biggest thing you took away from the way the season ended?” I asked him.
“Personally, I would say it was humbling,” he said. “I just need to get better. I need to get better for my teammates, for my organization. There was a lot of film that was being watched over the summer and just trying to learn myself and and coming to that realization, looking in the mirror, I do need to get better. You know, like I said, I've accomplished a lot of things. I've had some of my highest moments in my career and some of my lowest, and that's a part of the game. I mean, everything ain't gonna be perfect, but I'm man enough to acknowledge my flaws, and I'm man enough to acknowledge that I'm not perfect, and I'm also man enough to get my ass in the gym and work on those things and get better. I'm not trying to run from anything. I'm not running from what happened. I'm not running from what's going on because I know that I will make things better in the future.”
So, he spent the offseason trying to get better.
“I think just tightening up everything, tightening up shot mechanics, working on my body first and foremost,” he said. “Making sure I'm in the best shape possible, being able to get up and down the floor as many times as need be, being able to get out of pick and roles with speed, being able to jump and move, and everything I need to be to do to help this team. So it wasn't one specific aspect. Just my entire game in general, whether it's both sides of the ball, trying to just become a better player.”
That sounds like growth.
That sounds like a 22-year-old who spent a hard, painful, soul-searching, stressful summer, trying to get better at the same time there was incredible, generational wealth on the line.
And you know what?
It sure sounds like he came out the better for it.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Jalen Duren shows no resentment, just introspection after crazy summer
