Duren Is Staying! Pistons Lock Up Their All-NBA Center on a Five-Year, $200M Deal

After a four-month standoff that had all of us sweating, our big man is coming home: Jalen Duren has agreed to a five-year, $200 million fully guaranteed contract to stay with the Detroit Pistons, his agent Chafie Fields confirmed. The restricted free agent had skipped media day and sat out the first few practices of camp, and the clock was ticking toward that 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday deadline on the one-year qualifying offer — but it's done. And make no mistake about what we're keeping. The 22-year-old averaged 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds on a scorching 65% shooting across 70 games as we secured the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. You don't let a center like that walk. Trajan Langdon got his man, and he did it after Duren turned down this same offer two weeks ago and took issue with weight clauses in earlier proposals. Patience paid off. Now the roster is set with Ausar Thompson already locked in, and the first preseason game is Monday when we host the Phoenix Suns.