Victor Wembanyama has officially become a source of concern across the NBA, with teams scrambling to find a solution to the matchup nightmare he creates.
Standing 7-foot-4, possessing a guard-like offensive game, and now boasting a Defensive Player of the Year award, the once-in-a-generation talent has turned into an unsolvable riddle that every franchise is trying to crack this offseason.
Wembanyama even forced the reigning NBA champions back to the drawing board after highlighting Chet Holmgren’s most glaring weaknesses.
As for the Detroit Pistons, add them to the list of teams searching for a way to overcome this French obstacle. But to find an answer, they first need to confront the massive offseason question already hanging over them.
That question: whether Jalen Duren should be part of the team’s long-term plans.
While there are valid arguments on both sides of the looming Duren decision, Wembanyama may have inadvertently handed the Pistons the very answer they’ve been looking for.
Pistons must think ahead in Jalen Duren negotiations
Jalen Duren’s All-NBA regular season made him eligible for a supermax extension, but those contract aspirations took a hit after his postseason struggles.
His playoff performance was worrying on its own—but the fact that it came against mid-tier bigs like Wendell Carter Jr. and Jarrett Allen only raises more red flags.
If Duren couldn’t rise to the occasion against Eastern Conference centers, there’s no way Detroit can expect him to contain Wembanyama should they ever get past the conference finals and into the NBA Finals.
And while J.B. Bickerstaff has his own DPOY candidate in Ausar Thompson, expecting the forward to stop a big man nearly a foot taller is equally unrealistic.
Duren isn’t the dominant big who can help Detroit take down a Wembanyama-led Spurs team—and that’s fine. That doesn’t mean the Pistons shouldn’t bring the 22-year-old back.
However, under no circumstances should Trajan Langdon approve a massive deal for Duren that eats up the financial flexibility needed to eventually challenge Wembanyama or other top Western Conference contenders down the line.
Duren needs to meet Detroit halfway or seek a max elsewhere
The ideal offseason scenario would see Duren accepting that a middle-ground deal with the Pistons benefits both sides.
If the big man truly wants to help his team prepare for the challenge Wembanyama poses to nearly every franchise, he’ll have to abandon his supermax hopes and give Detroit the cap flexibility it needs to find its own answer.
If Duren still insists on playing hardball with the front office, the Pistons’ best move would be to let him walk and find a deal elsewhere.
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