Jalen Duren has $200 million decision to make by Thursday

Jalen Duren has until Thursday to make a decision on his future with the Pistons. Suffice it to say, there’s a little money involved.

Duren can accept Detroit’s reported five-year, $200 million offer or sign his one-year qualifying offer for about $9.6 million, allowing him to become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

As Luke Adams of Hoops Rumors noted, the financial argument for taking the $200 million is pretty compelling. Based on the NBA’s latest salary-cap projection, Duren could sign the qualifying offer, then land a four-year maximum contract next summer and still make slightly less over those five seasons than Detroit is offering him right now.

There’s also no guarantee that max contract would be waiting. An injury, a disappointing season or another rough postseason could change the market considerably.

Meanwhile, The Athletic reports that the Pistons’ current offer is fully guaranteed and no longer includes the weight clause that had been an issue earlier in negotiations.

Duren has already missed the start of training camp, with the relationship between the sides clearly having deteriorated. Taking the qualifying offer would give him a de facto no-trade clause this season and a path out of Detroit next summer.

That’s a lot of freedom. It’s also a lot of money to leave sitting on the table. If Duren does it, we’ll have a pretty good indication that this standoff stopped being strictly about dollars a while ago.