The Come Up: Jalen Duren’s Leap From Project to Pillar
Who saw Duren and the Detroit Pistons rising like this? Outside Detroit, maybe no one. Now they’re the NBA’s biggest surprise. “If I’m being honest, this is what I envisioned,” Duren says.The Come Up: Jalen Duren’s Leap From Project to Pillar
Who saw Duren and the Detroit Pistons rising like this? Outside Detroit, maybe no one. Now they’re the NBA’s biggest surprise. “If I’m being honest, this is what I envisioned,” Duren says.
A few years ago, Jalen Duren was scrolling online and came across a podcast that piqued his interest. In the episode, former New England Patriots wideout Julian Edelman describes the lengths he’d go to to be in the company of Tom Brady in an effort to build chemistry with his surefire Hall of Fame teammate.
It went beyond just practices. One summer, Edelman rented a hotel room in Manhattan Beach for three months just in hopes of getting some extra workouts with Brady, who had a house in the area.
Hearing the wide receiver wax poetic on his partnership with Brady, Duren’s mind began to drift toward his own future. Cade Cunningham, his teammate with the Detroit Pistons, had the game and the ambition to be a franchise pillar in his own right, striving to have his name etched in Detroit sports lore along with the likes of Zeke, Sanders, and Cabrera. The clip set in stone for Duren how critical Cunningham’s presence would be for his career.
“I kind of took that as like, ‘Man, this is my point guard,’” Duren tells me. “And hopefully, this is my point guard for the rest of my career. So I want to start to build some chemistry, go get some work in with him, just go be around him, try to get a feel for him as a person, as a human.”
That vision is playing out faster than anyone expected.
If I’m being honest, this is what I envisioned.Jalen Duren
With six regular-season games remaining, the Pistons sit atop the NBA’s Eastern Conference, having blown past modest preseason prognostications. At the center of it is Duren, who has emerged as one of the league’s biggest success stories. A traditional, physical, rebounding center by archetype, the 22-year-old has added modern wrinkles—passing, ballhandling, footwork, and a developing jumper—that hint at even more growth. In his first three years with the Pistons, Duren was cast as a role player with raw, unproven ability. But behind the scenes, coaches, team officials, and everyone in between have witnessed his steady transformation into a star who can compete for titles alongside Cunningham for years to come.
In February, Duren made his first All-Star team, making good on his own preseason prediction. And as the regular season draws to a close, he finds himself in pole position to win the league’s Most Improved Player award after posting career highs in points per game (19.5)—nearly doubling his scoring average from the previous season—while shooting 64.7 percent from the field and averaging nearly 11 boards, perfectly complementing Cunningham’s All-NBA-caliber season.
Together, Cunningham and Duren have endured some of the worst stretches imaginable. Two years ago, Detroit lost a league-record 28 straight games, becoming a laughingstock as it finished with the worst record in franchise history. But its biggest test may have happened last month, when Cunningham suffered a collapsed lung, leaving Duren to steady the ship during the most consequential period of Detroit’s season.
Over that stretch, Duren has shown that he’s much more than just an ideal running mate. He has proved that he can shoulder the load on his own, carrying the Pistons to a 6-2 record in Cunningham’s absence while averaging 23.4 points, 10.5 rebounds, and 1.8 assists. Rather than let Detroit falter without its leader, Duren assumed the mantle himself, looking like the type of franchise center Pistons fans could have only dreamed of four years ago.
“If I’m being honest, this is what I envisioned,” Duren says. “I think going into my workouts in the offseason, working on my body in the offseason, coming out of last season, my biggest goal was to take a major step. I wanted to be an All-Star. I wanted to be seen as one of the better players in this league. … I still got a long way to go, but I think I’m on the right path.”
Jalen Duren dunks during the game against the Toronto Raptors on March 31
As long as he can remember, Duren has been the biggest player on the floor. His combination of size, strength, and brute-force athletic ability carried him from a five-star high school prospect in Philly to a freshman phenom at Memphis. But entering the league at 18, he had little idea of how he could use his frame to affect the game consistently.
Duren’s first few years in Detroit were marred by an ever-changing carousel of coaches and executives. During his rookie season, his coach, Dwane Casey, stepped down. Then Monty Williams was fired after a 14-win season, which included the historic losing streak.
Following the 2023-24 season, the Pistons fired both Williams and general manager Troy Weaver, replacing them with J.B. Bickerstaff and former Pelicans assistant GM Trajan Langdon. Under Weaver, the Pistons assembled a talented core, drafting Cunningham and Ausar Thompson and securing Duren and Isaiah Stewart in draft-day trades. Langdon enhanced it further by tabbing Bickerstaff and making stealthy peripheral signings like Duncan Robinson and undrafted gem Daniss Jenkins.
Last season, Duren and the new-look Pistons began to come into form, and Detroit reached its first postseason in nearly a decade. During the season, the young center would occasionally show flashes of brilliance, but also still very much looked like a work in progress.
“It just took time for me to understand just even what my role was going to be in the NBA,” Duren admits. “Coming in, some guys get picked, and they know exactly what is needed from them. As soon as they get to their team, they get their role, they are already kind of set in stone. But I feel like I came in pretty young, so it was more like just a learning experience for me.”
Too often, he would second-guess himself, annoying teammates when he hinted at the potential of what he could be.
“He just passed it a lot,” Thompson tells me, shaking his head. “And I’m like, he’s way stronger than everybody.
“I used to tell him last year. Bro, just go dunk it.”
“I just always tell him … you better not go up with no soft shit,” Jenkins adds. “That’s all I tell him. Don’t go away from the gold. Don’t worry about no fouls. Go through any and everybody you see down there and finish.”
Entering last summer, Duren was done questioning his abilities. He wanted to be more than just a lob threat and transform into someone who could carry the offensive load—one who not only takes pressure off Cunningham but also has his name on the call sheet.
Bickerstaff sensed that desire and set out a plan for Duren’s offseason.
“We talked about the offensive stuff and how he can be not only a scorer,” Bickerstaff tells me, “but he can be a hub that you can play through and that can create for other people. But defensively, his ability to lock down the paint, protect the rim, rebound the basketball, close possessions, be the anchor of our defense—that’s what the 5 man’s responsibility is.”
Duren responded with an offseason that transformed his career. On some days, he’d lift in the morning, followed by a quick lunch, then head back to the gym for on-court workouts featuring circuits of shooting drills and work to refine his offensive post game.
“I’ve always been able to move, always been able to handle the ball a little bit, always been able to finish and pass the ball and make plays,” he said. “But like I said, that was on a lower level. It’s not the NBA. So I had to find my way of doing it on this level, which was tightening up my handle, tightening up my reads, learning what my reads would be, learning how to defend these guys.”
Other days were spent on the football field under the hot Florida sun at a local high school, running sprints until he was in the best shape of his life.
He also had to find discipline off the floor. When Duren was a child, his mother had a secret stash of Swedish Fish in the house, which Jalen made a habit of raiding. During his first few years in the league, he carried that sweet tooth along with other dietary vices.
“I was eating whatever,” he admits. “Little Caesars, Domino’s, Chinese food—just eating. Not really thinking, but just eating, and not understanding how much that’s affecting my body.”
So Pistons nutritionist Taylor Call implemented a strict diet. “No cakes, no cookies, not too many desserts or anything,” Duren tells me, as he devours his fourth bowl of grapes during our interview. “Right now, it’s a lot of greens, protein, carbs—trying to maintain weight.”
He knew things had changed a month into the season when teams began to prepare for him differently.
“Before, I’d be on the scouting report, I probably only got two clips: ‘He’s just a rebounder, live threat, dunker, spacing,’” he says, mimicking a coach’s voice.
“[Now] they might say, ‘Oh, he’s trying to drive right, sneak drives, DHO, handoff keeps’—obviously still a lob threat. Duck-ins, post, roll, and all. You got to scout me a little differently now because now I’m being more aggressive on the offensive end.”
By February, he was an All-Star, helping lead the Pistons to the top of the East. Individually, he may already be the league’s third-best center, behind Victor Wembanyama and Nikola Jokic.
As the trade deadline approached, some observers surmised that the Pistons might scour the league for an extra ball handler to help Cunningham offset his offensive responsibilities and ease Duren’s offensive burden. But Duren’s recent play during Cunningham’s absence provided a clue about why Detroit opted to stand pat.
More on Jalen Duren and the Pistons
Last month against the Lakers, with Cunningham out, Duren displayed the fortitude required of a franchise star, dropping 20 points, 11 rebounds, and three assists in a statement win. In the second half, as the Lakers mounted a comeback, he commanded the group huddle, providing instruction on how to get out of there with a win. His best play of all came on the final possession of overtime, when he contested a potential game-tying 3-pointer from Luka Doncic, securing the victory. Now, the kid who once struggled to find himself has no problem being the primary voice when needed.
“He’s more aware of his voice on the team,” said Pistons guard Javonte Green following the game. “He’s never been a shy guy or nothing like that, but just saying different stuff when we need it at different times, man, to just help us.”
Later that evening, Duren deployed another tactic. As the smiles, laughs, and trash talk commenced in the locker room, Duren pulled out a 4-foot speaker and took over the controls—playing Domino’s “Getto Jam” and Kendrick Lamar’s “DNA.”—leading to a room full of smiles and a chorus of “What does the youngin’ know about this?” from assistant coaches more than a decade Duren’s senior.
The scene was an extension of Duren’s growing presence within the Pistons’ ethos. If Cunningham is the calming force, Duren is the great connector, making sure the train is always on schedule.
“It’s not even something I thought of or tried to do,” Duren says when asked how he’s grown into a leadership role. “I think naturally, I just fuck with my guys. I’m cool with my guys. … I like to bring guys together. I like to joke. I like to play around. Serious when I need to be serious, though.”
Like the afternoon after the Lakers win, when Pistons coaches, executives, and players convened at the team facility for a team picture. Following the photo session, Bickerstaff gave the team the rest of the day off. Most players got out of Dodge, except Duren, who stayed on the court to watch film of the Lakers game and go over his footwork with assistant Vitaly Potapenko. Then, Duren challenged another assistant to a game of one-on-one and proceeded to dust him as Pistons backup center Paul Reed sneaked in glances while he practiced across the court.
“It’s been inspiring,” Reed says. “Because last year I saw him take steps forward. And I remember playing against him before I even came to this team, and he was still trying to figure things out. And I’m seeing the steps he’s taken forward every game. And he’s really inspiring, for real.”
That doesn’t mean Duren’s growing pains have ceased. One night in February, Duren got into a skirmish with Charlotte Hornets center Moussa Diabaté. After a brief back-and-forth under the basket, Duren mushed Diabaté, causing an all-out brawl that led to multiple suspensions, including one for Duren, who was forced out of the lineup for two games.
“I was upset,” he admits. “I felt like I could have handled it better in the sense that it didn’t have to escalate to the point where it did. I was more so upset that I couldn’t play in games and I was getting suspended and losing money, but not so much anything else. And also that, like I said, I could have handled it better because one of my brothers got suspended, too, so I didn’t like that.”
Hiccups are understandable for a young player, and even as success comes for Duren, room for improvement remains. Two days after Detroit’s win over the Lakers, Duren was again forced into a consequential situation against the Hawks, scoring 26 points and 14 rebounds—but he failed to lead the Pistons to victory in a loss that underlined his hubris. With the Pistons down by three with three minutes to go in overtime, he committed a crucial turnover, leading to an Atlanta fast break. In the game’s final seconds, he also missed a short shot that would have won it.
Following the loss, Duren wasn’t blasting music in the locker room, and his teammates were quick to exit. Just before 11 p.m., Duren emerged from a back room and stared straight ahead as he gathered his belongings in silence. I asked him what he wants to prove during this stretch without Cade.
“I want to show that our team is more than just one player,” he says. “We got a team. I feel like we got a complete team. I want to show the world that we got more than enough to be what we want to be. That’s what I want to show.”
Jalen Duren drives to the basket in a game on November 29, 2022, during his rookie season
Last summer, Duren traveled to Italy alongside Cunningham, where they rode scooters through Rome, took in the Amalfi Coast, and, yes, worked out together.
“Seeing all that shit was crazy,” Duren says. “Because Amalfi was like a hotel on a cliff. And when you look out your window, the beach is all the way down there. I couldn’t explain it. It was crazy, but it was the experience that I had to have.”
Over the years, the duo have become inseparable. Following the European excursion, Duren traveled to Cunningham’s home state of Texas for Pistons training camp, where Cade’s mother cooked for everyone in sight.
“I already knew him through basketball and through grassroots and playing AAU and USA Basketball and all that,” Duren says. “But I feel like it had to be on a deeper level. Our bond just grew. I was blessed to meet his family. He has a great family, great foundation, great background.”
The success makes Duren’s mind wander to the past, when he lost the most games in his life during his early years in Detroit. He remembers seeing the faces of teammates on the bench during those rebuilding years and having faith that those times wouldn’t last forever.
“It was tough, man, I ain’t going to lie. It was tough,” he says. “But a part of me was always like … I’ve seen what we had in this locker room. What we were losing with, I knew we were better than what was going on.”
And he remembers Cunningham saying they weren’t “2-26 bad” when everyone in the league believed otherwise.
“When he said that,” Duren says, “I think that really embodied what was going on. I felt like the guys we had in the locker room … we had the foundation, we just were all young. And I hate to use the young excuse, but it’s the truth. I go back to saying, you got to learn how to play in this league.”
A few years ago, all Duren knew about the city of Detroit was that the ’90s TV show Martin was based there—even though the series was filmed in Los Angeles. Now, cutouts of Duren’s head are held with pride by fans behind the bench at Little Caesars Arena, highlighting the love affair between the two.
I just always tell him … you better not go up with no soft shit. That's all I tell him. Don't go away from the gold. Don't worry about no fouls. Go through any and everybody you see down there and finish.Daniss Jenkins
“It’s a blue-collar city,” he says. “It’s a city that works for everything that they’re given. And I think they just respect the grind and the hustle, man. I think they respect just getting it out the mud.”
“I embody it,” he continues. “I like that type of basketball. I like to play physical. I like when it’s gritty. I’m with all that.”
But his future in Michigan was in doubt just before the 2025-26 season, when Duren and the Pistons failed to come to an agreement on a contract extension by the October 31 deadline, making him a restricted free agent this summer.
“I mean, it was what it was,” Duren says softly, looking like a man still reconciling with the decision. “I think it's tough because there is a business aspect to it. Like I said, I would love to be a Piston for life. It was nothing personal. Nothing I took personal with the organization or anything. It was just business. They felt one way, I felt another. And at that moment we couldn't come to an agreement.”
His general manager seems to be on the same page.
“We want him to be a Piston for life, too,” Langdon says. “It had nothing to do with what he had or hadn't done.”
But now, more immediate tasks are on the horizon. Soon enough, Cunningham and Duren will be on the court again, and the Pistons will finally be whole. In two weeks, Detroit will enter the postseason as a no. 1 seed, playing with expectations that this version of the team has never faced before, in a conference full of teams gearing up to beat them. Just down the road, the Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the hottest teams in the East since New Year’s Day. In Boston, Jayson Tatum is rounding into form. And the Hornets have transformed from a cellar dweller into the most dangerous offense in the league.
Yet the Pistons remain the biggest mystery of them all. Are they headed for a tough playoff lesson as a young team? Or is there a chance that they can make a run ahead of schedule?
“I just want this team to use its full potential,” Duren says. “Whatever that looks like, I want us, top to bottom, to reach our full potential. I want to come out of this season thinking like, ‘Yeah. We did everything that we wanted to do. We’ve grown and took another step, especially going into the next season.’ I just want to feel like we’re on the right path.”
