The Detroit Pistons trail the Orlando Magic, 2-1, heading into Monday’s game in Orlando.
The Detroit Pistons trail the Orlando Magic, 2-1, heading into Monday’s game in Orlando.
Orlando, Fla. — Probably the last thing the Pistons’ Jalen Duren needed Saturday afternoon was more time to sit and think.
His coach, J.B. Bickerstaff, had all but admitted as much that morning, when I asked him if some of Duren’s struggles in this first-round playoff series against Orlando were a byproduct of too much thinking.
“Because it’s the playoffs, you want to do more or be different,” Bickerstaff said, nodding. “But the reason we’re sitting here in these seats, and the reason those guys are out there on the floor, is because what they’ve done is good enough and being who you are is good enough. So overthinking the process just complicates things.”
A few hours later, though, things got a bit more complicated. Early in the third quarter of Game 3 in Orlando, Duren’s own game was unraveling again. And after watching the Pistons’ All-Star center commit another turnover on offense and then give up a Paolo Banchero dunk on a blown ball-screen coverage with Tobias Harris two possessions later, Bickerstaff had seen enough.
He called timeout with the Magic lead ballooning to double digits, and called for Paul Reed to check in at the scorer’s table. Duren, meanwhile, grabbed a towel and headed to the end of the visitors’ bench, where he’d sit for the remainder of the quarter with a glum look on his face.
He’d eventually return in the fourth, and Duren’s defensive rim protection did play a role in the Pistons’ late comeback from a 17-point deficit. But Duren fouled out with just over a minute left in the Pistons’ 113-105 loss, and his final stat line — eight points (3-of-10 shooting) and nine rebounds in 27 minutes — once again highlighted a big reason why the East’s No. 1 seed now trails 2-1 in this best-of-seven series.
Duren is averaging 9.0 points and 8.3 rebounds over the three games, well below the regular-season numbers (19.5 points, 10.5 rebounds) that made him an All-NBA candidate. And instead of bullying opponents as they did all season, the Pistons are getting bullied themselves, in part because Duren is losing his individual matchup with Wendell Carter Jr. Orlando’s veteran center had another big game Saturday with 14 points and 17 rebounds, and he seemed quite happy to let the Pistons’ young center know about it.
There was the play early in the second quarter when Duren took a pick-and-roll feed from Duncan Robinson and then tried to Euro-step past Carter before forcing a double-clutch shot completely over the backboard. That drew a side-eye look from the Magic center.
Then there was the one just after Duren checked back into the game in the fourth, when Carter rejected his first attempt and then openly mocked him after Duren’s second try off a spin move caromed high off the glass and never hit the rim.
“I didn’t pay too much attention to how they were reacting to it,” said Carter, who also had a heated exchange with Isaiah Stewart just before halftime. “I just knew I had to be the most physical person out there or they was gonna punk me. That’s as simple as it is.”
Defending Duren
Unfortunately for the Pistons, there’s no simple solution for Duren getting punked right now.
The Magic have done a terrific job of taking away one of Detroit’s offensive staples, smothering the pick-and-roll games between Cade Cunningham and Duren. That’s easier to do given the limited floor-spacing threats around them. (The Pistons are shooting just 30% from 3 in the series.) And even though the coaches have made some adjustments the past couple of games, including setting higher screens and initiating actions earlier in possessions, it’s still a problem.
So is Duren’s play in isolation, an area of his game that had seen plenty of growth in the regular season. He only has 10 field goals in the series and half of those are dunks. In 92 minutes on the court, Duren also has drawn just two shooting fouls on the Magic, while getting his own shot blocked five times. In short, he’s sort of a mess out there.
“I am shocked, because I’m a big Duren fan,” Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said on ESPN after Saturday’s game. “He’s an All-Star, and I think he’s going to be a hell of a player, but this is a wake-up call for him.”
It’s not too late for him to shake out of it in this series, just as he did a year ago after a rough start against the Knicks in his playoff debut.
“I mean, he’s confident,” Cunningham said. “These last three games haven’t went the way he wants, or the way we might want for him. But I have no doubt that he’s gonna figure it out. And he knows he’s gonna figure it out. So I’m excited for the next game for him to plant his foot into the series.”
Money matters
Duren dressed quietly in the visitors’ locker room after Saturday’s game, then exited without speaking to reporters. But he knows what’s at stake here. They all do, after that 60-win regular season raised expectations for a still-flawed roster heading into the playoffs.
But Duren also knows what’s waiting in the offseason, when team president Trajan Langdon will have some pivotal decisions to make involving his roster’s young core.
Ausar Thompson becomes extension-eligible this summer, and it’ll be interesting to see whether the Pistons can meet his price now that the 23-year-old is a first-team All-Defense selection. (For what it’s worth, Atlanta’s Dyson Daniels signed a four-year, $100 million rookie extension last October.)
But what is Duren’s value in Detroit? Is he really a viable No. 2 offensive option on a championship contender? Those are even more pressing questions now, because he’ll be a restricted free agent on July 1. That means other teams can offer him a four-year contract worth up to an estimated $177 million this summer, while the Pistons can offer him as much as $239 million on a five-year deal. (If he were to earn All-NBA honors this spring, that max ceiling would rise.)
Where the two sides eventually meet is anyone’s guess at this point. The fourth-year pro won’t turn 23 until November, his work ethic draws rave reviews from coaches and the front office, and his game already has grown by leaps and bounds in Detroit. Yet his playoff performance this spring certainly isn’t helping his agent’s leverage.
Whether any of that is weighing on Duren’s mind in these playoffs is another unknown. But if it is, he needs to stop thinking about it and start doing something about it Monday night in Game 4.
Because time is running short on the Pistons’ season. And as we saw Saturday, patience is, too.
@JohnNiyo
