The Pistons need Jalen Duren, and Duren needs the Pistons. Now? The pressure is on

Deciding whether to bring back Jalen Duren was only the second biggest question for the Detroit Pistons this offseason, as they size up a vastly different Eastern Conference than the one that saw them run away with 60 wins and the No. 1 seed last season. The monthslong saga with Duren was over money, of course, but also power and respect. A lack of personal touch and a very direct -- if not harsh -- approach to the negotiations was one of the reasons it lasted so long. Duren's underperformance during the playoffs -- he averaged just 10.2 points and 8.5 rebounds over 14 games -- combined with these protracted talks didn't leave a great taste with anyone. Duren's postseason performance exposed the oversized weight MVP candidate Cade Cunningham carried, as the guard had nine games of five turnovers or more, illustrating the need for another premier shot creator. The Pistons inquired about trading for Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant this offseason, according to league sources, and were positioned to offer Austin Reaves a big free agent contract if the Los Angeles Lakers opened the door. None of that materialized. The Pistons had heard Leonard wasn't interested in coming to Detroit amid the Clippers' cap-circumvention scandal, per league sources, and the Rockets weren't willing to engage on Durant despite the close relationship he shares with Cunningham. As for Reaves, once the Lakers blew him away with a max contract offer, he wasn't going anywhere -- he'd already turned down being drafted by Detroit under the Troy Weaver era to go the undrafted route and sign with the Lakers a few years ago. Instead, the Pistons were left with Duren, who was facing the double whammy of big playoff failure and restricted free agency. For most of the offseason, the Pistons were offering a deal starting in the range of $30 million per year, a slight step down from the $40 million he eventually got. If his feelings are indeed bothered by this process, will the cold, hard cash of $200 million over five years be the balm? "Looking in the mirror, I do need to get better," Duren said Sunday at the team's facility announcing his contract. "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." Duren is 22, and as the NBA has shown for 80 years with very few exceptions, players fail and fail early. Sometimes embarrassingly. It doesn't guarantee success on the back end, but Duren was provided a blueprint for what works and what doesn't when the weather turns warm, the scouting report gets thick and pet plays are taken away. The East is filled with brand names at the top and teams that are no longer incentivized to lose at the bottom. The Philadelphia 76ers reloaded by adding two Finals MVPs, including the generational LeBron James, who seems motivated for ring No. 5. Tyrese Haliburton returns to the Indiana Pacers after missing last season with a right Achilles tear, and Giannis Antetokounmpo poses a major threat as he's paired with the organizational know-how the Miami Heat provide. And let's not forget the champion New York Knicks. An All-Star, All-NBA-worthy center in Duren is the minimum the Pistons require: They need him at his absolute best just to compete in this newly configured conference. Sources tell ESPN one of the reasons for Duren's frustration was hearing in negotiations that he was the team's fourth-best player -- perhaps said in a way to illustrate how far he'd fallen in the playoffs, perhaps the cold part of negotiations. Duren's regular season included a stretch in which he kept the Pistons atop the East when Cunningham was out with a collapsed lung, and culminated in him becoming the third Piston in franchise history to be All-NBA at his age or younger (joining Isiah Thomas in 1982-83, 84 and Andre Drummond in 2015-16). But the playoffs were another story. He went from averaging 19.5 PPG in the regular season to 10.2 PPG in the postseason. That 9.3 drop in PPG was the third-largest scoring decrease from a regular season to postseason in NBA history by a player selected as an All-Star, trailing Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. "Last season was some of my highest moments in my career and some of my lowest," Duren said on Sunday. "I'm willing to acknowledge that. And I'm willing to turn that frustration and that anger and whatever I felt toward my play and how things may have ended, I've learned instead of exerting my energy in being mad, exerting my energy into bettering my craft." The playoffs were ugly, as Duren was outplayed by big men Wendell Carter Jr. of the Orlando Magic and Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen of the Cleveland Cavaliers. When word got back to Duren that his playoff performance had hurt his standing in the organization, he began exploring his market value -- though many in the organization believed Duren would eventually return. Despite being a restricted free agent, he met with the Sacramento Kings early into free agency. The Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks and Washington Wizards also had interest, sources tell ESPN. But Detroit had the inside track. It knew that whatever number it landed on would be greater than whatever was outside its doors -- and the Pistons were unwilling to engage on a sign-and-trade, league sources tell ESPN. Duren's game has grown since he was drafted: As a big who can handle the ball, an improving defender and perhaps a midrange jump shooter. That isn't easy to find in this league, and the Pistons know it. He and Cunningham have developed great chemistry and been catalysts in Detroit's turnaround, and there aren't many lead guards Duren can find who are better. Unlike many other Eastern contenders, the Pistons aren't cash-strapped: Detroit entered the offseason having signed two players to contracts worth at least $100 million, the fewest in the NBA (both Cunningham and Drummond on max rookie extensions). For the Pistons, whether they brought back Ausar Thompson on a lower-than-expected number for 2027-28 and beyond only mattered so much. Over the past two weeks, they have agreed to deals with Duren ($200 million) and Thompson ($155 million), doubling the previous offseason total. Their three best players are still on the upswing, and they have all of their future draft picks to use in a trade should the opportunity arise. Once players on rookie deals start getting rewarded, the clock starts ticking. It's just a fact of second aprons and natural progressions. The Pistons have bet big on Duren and Thompson's development, even though they haven't bet the house on them. Thompson could very well be the league's best defender this side of San Antonio and was a terror in the playoffs. Team president of basketball operations Trajan Langdon wanted to see how last year's youth-laden team would perform within the cauldron of the playoffs, resisting an all-in move. Conventional wisdom stated the hellacious defense from the regular season didn't have another level to reach, and that belief was correct, hence the struggle. So, Langdon has tried to operate around the margins. No blockbuster moves. There didn't appear to be real traction toward bringing Tobias Harris back, and the Pistons and Isaiah Stewart equally seemed ready for a change, meaning a big part of this identity was willfully being stripped. Bringing in John Collins to replace Harris means they got a little younger, and they added shooting in Oklahoma City's Isaiah Joe and perhaps veteran Taurean Prince if he's healthy -- all three are on deals the Pistons can get out of after the season. And most importantly, Langdon brought back Thompson and Duren for less than the max. As it stands, it feels like the Pistons aren't in the top playoff tier with Philadelphia and New York, but their sweat equity means they should win their share of regular-season games. And if Detroit has the stomach to go after it this year, they could go after someone like Kyrie Irving in Dallas -- several staffers are fond of Irving's game, shot creation and malleability next to ball-dominant stars like James and Luka Doncic. If a high-revenue team like the Knicks is pinching pennies, it means everybody else will follow suit in some ways. But the Knicks won a title before their cost-cutting moves. So did the Thunder before trading away three key pieces. Detroit fans have just gotten used to being good again, so the in-town expectations are not willing to cede ground to Philadelphia or Miami just because those teams acquired big names with championship pedigrees. Duren got his money, as painful as the process was. Now, it's on him and the team to make sure that wasn't a preview of the struggle to come in the regular season ... or beyond.