Detroit — He’s making it look easy now.
But even on a night where his stat line began to look more like the display on a Pop-A-Shot machine – 22 points and 22 rebounds in 34 minutes? – Jalen Duren wanted to dispel that myth after the Pistons’ 114-103 win over Utah on Wednesday.
“It’s not easy,” he said, smiling. “It is not easy.”
No, but it easy to see what a difference a year has made for the Pistons’ young center, as Duren’s assertive start to this NBA season isn’t just raising his own value in a contract year. It’s helping to raise the ceiling for this team, as the Pistons look more and more like the Eastern Conference contender fans were hoping for coming off last year’s playoff breakthrough.
Cade Cunningham’s clutch play is probably the biggest reason Detroit (6-2) is off to its best eight-game start since 2008, trailing only the surprising Chicago Bulls by a half-game atop the East. But Isaiah Stewart’s playing the best basketball of his career, too, making an NBA All-Defense case for himself. Ausar Thompson is flashing his versatility on a nightly basis, filling the injured Jaden Ivey’s role while expanding his own at both ends of the floor. Ron Holland is creating havoc whenever he’s on the court. And Tobias Harris, Duncan Robinson and Caris LeVert are providing veteran stability — and spacing — around that young core.
“I think we’ve got a team full of stars, honestly,” Cunningham said after his 19-point fourth quarter sealed Wednesday’s win and prompted more “MVP!” chants at Little Caesars Arena. “We’ve got guys that star in their role better than anywhere else in the league.”
Still, don’t overlook the role Duren is playing here, and the impact he’s having down low, where all the dirty work gets done.
“I mean, he just creates so many problems for defenses and offenses alike,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said.
‘Just the beginning’
And the best part is, the problem no longer seems to be getting Duren to realize his potential. Last season, it took him a couple months before he flipped a switch after an admittedly “soft” start. This season, he has simply carried over the determination he showed all through the offseason. And if you ask Bickerstaff what the difference is, he’ll give you a one-word answer to start.
“Him,” the coach said. “It’s him understanding what we need from him. And it’s the work that he did over the summer — not just on his game, but on his body and how he’s taking care of himself. You know, he’s always been talented, he’s always been skilled. But now he’s got the confidence to match that skill and that talent, and this is what happens. You see players like him take off. And I think we’re seeing just the beginning of it.”
That’s important, obviously, with Duren now beginning the end of his rookie contract. Neither he nor Ivey reached agreements on rookie-scale contract extensions before the league deadline at the start of the regular season. That means both 2022 lottery picks will be restricted free agents at the end of the season, assuming the Pistons extend qualifying offers, and Duren, who’ll only turn 22 in couple weeks, is on record as saying “the hope is to spend my whole career here.”
But if he’s looking to land an extension that pays him $30 million annually, or somewhere in that expensive neighborhood, Duren knows he’ll need to show more than what he had. And so far, so good, on that front.
The fourth-year pro is posting career-best numbers across the board. Duren is averaging 17.9 points and 11.4 rebounds — both numbers are skewed by an early ejection for a flagrant foul in the Pistons’ Oct. 24 win at Houston — on 23.4-percent usage. He owns a plus-12.0 net rating, and among centers, he ranks behind only Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic in the NBA’s Player Impact Estimate stat. (He ranks seventh among all players in ESPN’s player efficiency rating.)
Wednesday’s dominant performance against Utah marked Duren’s fourth career 20-point, 20-rebound game. But it was his third double-double in the last four games, and it came on the heels of Saturday’s career-high 33-point outburst against Dallas in Mexico City. It also came on a night where the Pistons got off to a sluggish start at both ends of the floor and didn’t really get going until Duren scored Detroit’s final 12 points before halftime.
“I tried to be the guy that sparked something tonight,” Duren said. “And thankfully it did.”
Message received
As for the fire that stayed lit all summer, Duren is no doubt benefitting from playing for the same head coach for the first time in his young career. But he also sounds thankful for the message he’s gotten from team president Trajan Langdon and Bickerstaff, both of whom have pushed him to improve his focus and expand his game.
“It’s just being aggressive,” he said of his hot start. “I’ve had conversations with JB — multiple conversations throughout the summer and coming into the season — about how he’d seen me work on my game all summer, how he wants me to continue to be aggressive and kind of show what I’ve been working on. So with that came a lot of confidence. My teammates, too, telling me to keep attacking bigs and whoever opposing teams decide to put on me. So, you know, I’m just trying to do what they asked me to do.”
We already knew what he could do as a rim-running lob threat in the pick-and-roll game with Cunningham. (“They’re a problem,” Bickerstaff says.) But now that teams are starting to defend it differently, that combo is doing more with those actions to put teams in conflict, utilizing Duren’s passing ability and finishing plays in different ways.
“If he’s going to be aggressive going to the rim, they step up, he makes the easy pass,” Bickerstaff said. “They stay back, he goes and finishes it. They bring in the weak-side (defender), he finds the guy in the corner for the three. So there’s just so many things that he can do from that position that puts the defense in a tough spot.”
He’s also doing more things on his own. Duren’s still dominating on the glass, leading the league in offensive rebounds and second-chance points. But nearly 45 percent of his baskets this season have come off the dribble. And in another sign of his increased aggression in the paint, his free-throw rate is double what it was a year ago. Also noteworthy: Duren is shooting 86 percent from the line this season.
His improvement at the other end of the floor is just as notable, and arguably more important to any long-term projections here, financial or otherwise. Stewart and Thompson are the defensive stalwarts on this roster, and Holland’s not far behind. But don’t discount Duren’s contributions to Detroit’s defensive rating, which ranks third in the NBA at the moment, trailing only defending NBA champ Oklahoma City and a San Antonio squad that has Wembanyama swatting shots left and right.
With more consistent effort, Duren is defending the rim with more authority, handling pick-and-rolls better — Wednesday night was another example of that — and thriving in two-big lineups alongside Stewart. That’s been out of necessity the past two games with Harris sidelined by an ankle injury, but don’t be surprised if the “Dawg Pound” duo becomes a staple in Detroit this winter.
“You know, me and Stew take our job very seriously,” Duren said. “Being the anchors of the defense, being the Dawg Pound, doing all the dirty work down there banging and trying to out-tough opposing teams’ bigs. I mean, it’s just who we are.”
And if this is what Duren is becoming, maybe he’s right when he says confidently, “the sky’s the limit.”
jniyo@detroitnews.com
