Jalen Duren thinks Detroit Pistons are ‘smarter, better, stronger,’ and ready to win a championship
At 22 years old, it’s not surprising that Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren is lacking patience on the basketball court.
The NBA All-Star isn’t expecting the Pistons to have any more growing pains. In fact, he believes the Eastern Conference leaders are ready to win a title now.
“I appreciate where we are at in the moment, but I also understand there is a bigger goal,” Duren recently told Andscape. “To some people, it might sound crazy, but we are looking to win a championship. We’re not looking to wait.
“We feel we have the guys. We have the coaching staff. We have the mentality, play style to do so. And we’re trying to go get it.”
For the Pistons to be a title contender, All-Star guard Cade Cunningham will be expected to lead them there. Cunningham, a potential NBA MVP candidate, will need offensive help, however, as defenses focus on him. Lately, Duren has appeared capable of being that much-needed No. 2 scorer to complement Cunningham in the Pistons’ title chase.
Duren is making his case for the NBA Most Improved Player award this season. He’s averaging a career-best 18.2 points per game (up nearly seven points from last season) as well as 10.6 rebounds. At a brawny 6-foot-10 and 250 pounds, he has picked up his game the past three games, averaging 26.6 points on 68% shooting from the field and 14 rebounds. Tonight, Duren and the Pistons will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on ESPN (7 p.m. ET).
Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff isn’t surprised by Duren’s recent surge.
“He’s special because he can look in the mirror and evaluate himself honestly, then is able to ask for input on how to get better and attack it every single day,” Bickerstaff told Andscape. “He’s got courage that most people his age don’t have to find a way to improve past insecurities.”
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (right) said Jalen Duren (seated) has the courage to improve on insecurities.
Zach Barron/NBAE via Getty Images
For Duren to be talking a championship is remarkable considering how downtrodden the Pistons were not long ago.
Duren was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 2022 NBA draft out of the University of Memphis. This was a season after Cunningham was selected first overall by the Pistons, and the franchise endured a miserable 20-win season.
It actually got worse.
In Duren’s first two seasons, the Pistons won 17 games under head coach Dwane Casey in 2022-23 and 14 games under head coach Monty Williams in 2023-24. The 2023-24 Pistons also set an NBA record with 28 consecutive losses.
Through all the losing and embarrassment, Duren said he never wanted out of the Motor City.
“That’s not my character. That’s not me. I’m super loyal. I hang my hat on loyalty. I was raised on loyalty,” Duren said. “These are my brothers, man. Honestly, I don’t just say that just because we’re all on the same team. I honestly love these guys. So, in my head, looking at it, I didn’t see a bad team. I was young. I knew we had pieces. We were just missing something.
“Experience would be the easy thing to say. We were just missing something. We were missing a lot, actually. But for me, I just never saw it as this is not going to work. I always knew that once we figured some things out, grabbed a couple pieces, established a culture, maybe we can be something.”
At NBA All-Star Game, J.B. Bickerstaff understands special opportunity to coach – AndscapeRead now
The Pistons hired Bickerstaff after hiring Trajan Langdon as president of basketball operations in the summer of 2023. Detroit did have a wealth of young talent in Cunningham, Duren, forward Isaiah Stewart, forward Ausar Thompson and guard Jaden Ivey. Langdon added veteran forward Tobias Harris via free agency and drafted forward Ron Holland II fifth overall in 2024. The Pistons became the first NBA team to triple its win total from the previous season by finishing 44-38 last season — Detroit’s first winning record since the 2015-16 season.
Duren gave Bickerstaff credit for the turnaround by establishing expectations and a culture that the players “bought into.” Duren added that the Pistons have “a lot more room to grow.”
“It’s just a testament to the work — a testament to the character of the guys that we’ve had here with what we went through,” Duren said. “I look at it as a learning experience. I know the world is looking at it like, ‘Wow, they lost so many games and they were a bad team.’ I never felt like we were a bad team. I just felt we just had to figure it out.
“We were a young team. [We took] a lot of lumps early in our [careers]. We haven’t fully figured it out. But we figured out our culture, who we wanted to be night in and night out. Right now, we’re just building in it.”
In 2025, the No. 6-seed Pistons earned the right to play the third-seeded New York Knicks in the first round of the playoffs. The Pistons, without an injured Stewart, split the first two games and rallied from a 3-1 series deficit, but the Knicks won the series 4-2 with a dramatic 116-113 victory in Game 6.
While experience was gained for the young Pistons, Duren is still pained and inspired by that series defeat.
“It hurt a lot, man. I never went back and watched it because, honestly, I didn’t want to see it,” Duren said. “I replayed everything in my head. From my standpoint, I could have helped way more. It was a good learning experience just to get our feet wet, understand what the playoffs are, understand what it’s going to be, how it’s going to be rough. And I think it was good for us. Honestly, I felt we could have won that if a couple different things went our way. It was a tough one. …
“I’m glad that we’ll be back stronger, better, smarter. We’ll be better.”
Jalen Duren (right) and Cade Cunningham (left) have the Detroit Pistons atop the Eastern Conference.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
The Pistons have the best record in the Eastern Conference (43-14) and the best winning percentage in the NBA (.754), ahead of the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-15, .750) The Boston Celtics were 5½ games behind the Pistons in the East standings entering Thursday. The Pistons are on pace to reach 50 wins for the first time since the 2007-08 season.
While confident with big dreams, Duren maintains that the Pistons haven’t forgotten where they came from and still have much to prove.
“We are humbled by where we were and where we’ve been,” Duren said. “Another thing is character and the mindset that everybody understands we’re hungry for more. We haven’t done anything. We haven’t won anything, and we haven’t been anywhere. We lost in the first round last year. So, it’s nothing to really be big-headed about. We have nothing to be walking around conceited about. We’ve got a lot more work to do.
“Now we’re starting to get rolling. I don’t even talk as if we have accomplished anything. We haven’t done anything yet. But we’re further than we were.”
Duren has also advanced in his own career as a first-time All-Star. Two days before the All-Star Game reserves were named, Duren told Andscape that he wouldn’t believe he finally received the honor until he officially heard his name. Those dreams came true. He found out when his All-Star selection was announced on the Jumbotron at Little Caesars Arena during the Pistons’ 130-77 win over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 1.
“It feels amazing,” Duren said during NBA All-Star Weekend. “It’s a huge honor. With an organization as historic as the Pistons, to be a part of their history and be a part of all the things that guys have done before me, it’s a huge honor. I can’t ask for [anything] more.”
Cade Cunningham’s first NBA All-Star Game start a part of his plan – AndscapeRead now
Like the tough standout Pistons before him — Ben Wallace, Dennis Rodman, Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer — Duren does a lot of dirty work in the paint and isn’t afraid to show toughness. He served a two-game suspension for initiating an on-court altercation during a Feb. 9 game in which he shoved Charlotte Hornets center Moussa Diabaté in the face.
Duren said it’s “a match made in heaven” to play for the Pistons, and he is very familiar with the history that includes three NBA titles and “The Bad Boys.”
Duren said he is proud to represent the Pistons’ franchise and Detroit.
“It’s an honor. A lot of former players come back to support,” Duren told Andscape. “The culture that we have now isn’t new to the city. It isn’t new to the organization. This is something that probably got lost over the years but was back in the ‘80s with Isiah Thomas and Rick [Mahorn] and all those guys, and even [Rasheed] Wallace.
“They carried a certain type of grit and certain type of energy with them. It was like, ‘You’re not going to outwork us. We’re going to come in here, play hard, out tough you, outwork you.’ And they were successful with it. I feel we kind of adopted that mindset and that mentality. …
“It’s just now happening where we are getting the light. Cade was, but we [overall] are just now getting the light because we weren’t as successful as we are now.”
Marc J. Spears is the senior NBA writer for Andscape. He used to be able to dunk on you, but he hasn’t been able to in years and his knees still hurt.
