Smells like it too

But how does it taste?

That’s the bigger issue IMO. The jump in physicality in the playoffs is a common challenge for young bigs, but he looked like he had basically rage quit at times during the playoffs. Literally playing the most important basketball of your career and you look like you just want to go home. That’s a massive red flag

That was also an issue in his first few seasons. His defense was legitimately bad. Also, playoffs kind of revealed how limited he is as a player and how he could be shut down in the playoffs.

Different kind of player, but I think concerns with Duren’s extension are a bit similar to Ayton’s Suns extension situation.

Really jacked and getting slower by the year.

There was a reason almost the entire Lakers fanbase was choosing Kessler over Duren. It’s the skill set that teams require and Kessler fits that bill for most teams. Duren’s game relies a decent amount on Cade and he’s an average defender at best. His best skill is probably his rebounding and even then it took a backseat in the playoffs.

I agree. I think the rumored Pistons offer (30-35M) is pretty reasonable. It’s just a huge gap between the max he wants

Franz getting hurt saved the Pistons from an all timer choke job

I think it’s an equal outcome regardless. Either you have over a dozen bad to downright terrible games in one playoff run that adda ton of quantity, or you lose out to an 8th seeded play-in team and lose the narrative that you were at least able to make it to the second round.

Either way, in the end having him make WCJ look like the second best player on the court at times with how he’s defending you is the thing that hurts him the most, and everything else is just adding to it. WCJ isn’t terrible, but of the 2 starting lineups he’s the most designated role player out there.

I think the Magic series showed how Duren could be shutdown and then the Cavs series showed how easy it is. He also didn’t play well against the Knicks in the previous years’ playoffs.

those poor ig massage therapists

Better to not play and have others wonder if you’re overrated than play and remove all doubt - ancient Shanghai Shark proverb 

See also: Rockets, Houston

Max contracts and the cap are to protect owners from going crazy which in turn protects players from lock outs

Agree. Hard cap, spend it as you like.

I feel like it would be impossible to pay certain franchise guys what they’re actually “worth” and still field a competitive team at the same time.

Steph Curry has singlehandedly added literal billions of dollars of value to the Warriors, even with the insane money he makes now, he’s way underpaid when you think about it.

What’s to stop a player from demanding that he makes half of his team’s cap, or two thirds?

Doing that would cause like 90% of players to strike. It’s the mid-tier and below players who are keeping this in place so that they can get some of the money too.

Strong disagree. Some lazy shit franchise like the Bulls would offer Luka 100M/yr to drag them to an 8th seed. No max contracts would almost guarantee a top 5 player gets put on a bum squad with no help

Brother you realize that the union was also in favor of the max cause a player making 80% of the cap leaves scraps for the other 14 in the team yes?

So when they did that in the late 90s, it just led to even younger guys getting more ridiculous deals and teams just wanting to get off having to pay to develop their highest paid players by trading them for pennies on the dollar. Messed up a whole generation of really talented players imo because they were all pretty much at odds with management from the jump.

This negotiation has nothing to do with a max, though. Pistons don’t believe he’s worth even the max or there would be no stalemate, so it’s not really a part of the equation for this extension.

I think first team all NBA players should get the max. The second team max should be lower. And third team max should be lower than that.

Pistons have all the cards here.

1. Sign him to a reasonable extension

2. Sign and trade and get decent assets in return.

3. He takes the QO. They may lose him for nothing, but he will still be motivated to play for the big contract.

I think Arenas was a max guy but they gave him the max after Gerald Wallace tore up his knee.

I was personally insulted watching him in the playoffs

That is a pretty sweet deal if you can pull it off

There’s worse careers one could have in the nba

Makes sense why he wants money but that doesn’t mean hes gonna get it. Orl kept their team together and it doesn’t look good for them. Okc 3 were better than the pistons 3. He had an all star season and that’s cool but he also had an all time shitter in the playoffs. Nothing was he could do after that to get the lab max. No team is gonna pay him that much

There was some idiot in the Pistons sub telling us that Duren was clearly playing injured and that was the reason for his fall off

My counterpoint was that would make his agent the literal worst of all time if true

Eh I’d say we’re not really at the precipice at all, we’re several years in and pretty much every team that isn’t a bottom feeder has made moves based on the 2nd Apron. There’s plenty of precedent for contracts given to guys of his caliber under the new CBA

Love to know the pistons counter offer based on that performance

Mans was getting outworked by a dude that’s fucking his ex and clowning him the whole series. What more motivation could you need lmfao

When we win that chip it’ll be worth it. (Snorts hopium copiously)

Rob Pelinka is lucky Jeanie Buss likes him so much.

Everyone laughed when the mark williams trade being rescinded left the Lakers giving Luka Jaxson Hayes and Alex Len

Laughed when we went for Ayton on a bargain bin deal

Who were we supposed to go for? Who’s the best rim protecting center that’s available now or anytime soon

Honestly, Duren not asking for a fair market contract is best for the Pistons. They could end up stuck long term with 2 non-shooters in the starting lineup. This way they gave an excuse to move on from Duren.

Ausar probably needs to be in Dyson Daniel’s contract range or anything above 27-28 is an overpay for a non-shooting wing player.

The problem here is that fans always assume that player development is linear…fuck no it’s not. Players plateau or regress all the time and often it happens after contract year. Don’t pay a dude the max if he hasn’t given you enough of a reason to do so. It’s that simple. If you feel like you’ve got Ayton 2.0 then don’t pay him.

Ah the he’s 23 defense.

Anyways, seem pretty fucked to me after keeping Reeves. So I guess it’s do you want to be fucked short term or long term.

What makes you think he -will- take the leap, though? The problem isn’t that he can’t, it’s that there’s no real evidence he has a path to overcome the weaknesses that plagued him in the playoffs. He’s not going to suddenly become a shooter at any volume, he’s not going to become a passing hub, he’s not going to magically become a plus defender or rim protector. What’s the path?

We know who Duren is. He’s not taking a magical fantasy leap

Unfortunately, the Pistons are the NBA team he’s actually hearing say all of that, so he probably thinks it’s personal.

I don’t know. There is probably one team out there that would give him $40m/yr, but of course it would have to be a sign and trade.

It’s just that the Pistons can hold him hostage since he’s a RFA and because nobody has cap space. I wouldn’t be surprised if he take the QO

Balmer would.

Depends how much Duren likes planting trees.

Supposedly $25M was their opening offer

How is $25m low? This dude isn’t really good enough for anything more than that. They would be screwed going higher.

Have Ausar Thompson to pay also. Both have too many deficiencies in their game to tie up a bunch of money.

How is $25m low? This dude isn’t really good enough for anything more than that. They would be screwed going higher.

Have Ausar Thompson to pay also. Both have too many deficiencies in their game to tie up a bunch of money.

A bet on himself season and shows up in the playoffs he’s going to get paid. People questioned Brunson’s first playoff run and Mavs weren’t sure he was worth ⁴⁄₅₅.

We got that corrupt Kushner money now, so I ain’t care tbh