Isaiah Stewart tribute; free agency preview

The biggest news surrounding the Pistons as of right now is Jalen Dern.

And we knew.

from the moment that it was clear that he was going to struggle in the playoffs.

from the moment that we saw him start the season off on a career note, from the moment that he received his first All-Star, from the moment he was named third team All-NBA, from the moment that he and the Pistons were eliminated in an embarrassing fashion by the Cleveland Cavaliers game seven on May 17th, it was clear that The Pistons and Jalen Dern's camp was going to be an interesting type of negotiation.

But because of the 70 career games that he played, career highs across the board, averaging 20 points per game, about what, 10 and a half rebounds.

He had like 40 something double doubles.

And we remember how much better he got in the second half of the season when Kay went down with that.

collapsed long.

He literally took the helm as this team's best player.

You know, he accomplished a lot during the regular season, did not accomplish enough during the playoffs, and part of the reason why they fell short and did not reach at least the conference finals.

Jalen Dern is eligible for a rookie max extension worth $208 80, 70 million.

There are some reports out there saying that both sides are far apart on the deal.

There's a possibility of a sign in trade.

I've been told by someone close to the situation that they are not worried about anything and that they do expect Jalen Dern to be back here in Detroit.

As you know, Teron, there's a lot of moving parts to this, but Your opinion, what are your thoughts about what is going on with this whole Jalen Dern situation? Yeah, so

one, I'm not surprised.

Like, I feel like Jalen Dern and his camp want to get paid, and deservingly so.

Like, you know, the all-NBA player, third-team all-NBA, the player, like you said, that carried the team, especially at the end, without Cade and held on to that number one seat.

And I think...

the front office, and I'm not speaking specifically about Trajan or anyone, but you have to be a little skeptical with how he performed in the playoffs about giving him that type of money.

So I think there's going to be naturally a divide because who, which Jalen Dern is the real Jalen Dern? Is it the guy that went, had these career high numbers in the regular season? Or is it the guy that struggled in the playoffs? And you can honestly make a case that he wasn't the best center in on the Pistons just during the playoff stretch, even though it's a small sample size and different things like that.

So I think there's going to be a disconnect between money and different things like that.

And I honestly think Trajan and the front office are going to eventually get the deal done.

I think it's going to be somewhere in the middle.

I think it's going to be $200 million or close to that, but it's not going to be the 280 or anything like that.