Jalen Duren landed at No. 23 on FanSided's 25-under-25 NBA Player Rankings this season, ranking the best young players in the NBA. Check out the rest of the list here.
Jalen Duren isn’t a unicorn.
He’s not a floor spacer. He’s not hyper-versatile. Fans don’t wow at his jumper, handle, or agility. He’s not a stretch five or a smallball five or a point center.
But he’s not limited, either.
And instead of having to adapt your offense around him, you can just benefit from what he brings to the table.
Duren doesn’t miss opportunities. He rebounds at a high level (13th among centers for defensive rebound percentage). He finishes plays at a high level (69 percent field goal percentage). He was one of six players to average 10 rebounds and one block per game while shooting 60 percent or better from the field.
He was the youngest of those six players.
Duren’s assist numbers don’t raise any eyebrows. They’re unnoticeable. Just 2.7 assists per game. But if you dig in, you find that Duren shows real promise as a playmaker off the short roll, one of the most valuable positions in the game.
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As Cade Cunningham ascends to what could be an MVP-level caliber, teams will send more and more help at him. The best option will be to simply try to get the ball out of his hands as much as possible. Bringing two on-ball when he gets a screen from Duren is the easiest way to do that cleanly.
But Duren has shown that he can pass out of those situations, kicking to the corner or lobbing to the dunker spot. That simple mechanism may seem insignificant, but instilling fear in teams is enough to make them think twice about sending that double.
Duren has a high foul rate, which is typical for bigs his age. As he gets more experience (and the benefit of the doubt with the officials), that will improve, which gives him more chances to impact plays
Bigs also have a learning curve for anticipating plays and sequences. Duren is very early on that curve. What’s promising is that there isn’t anything in front of him that he hasn’t shown an ability to learn and adapt.
All that, and oh yeah, he’s big, strong, fast, and agile. Sometimes that’s all it takes. Duren having so much more just makes the fit all the better.
Think back to Luka’s early years in Dallas. Cade may not be Luka, but he’s not incredibly far off. Luka, in those early years, had Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber as his bigs. No one to put real pressure at the rim. No one to really cover for him in the paint. It set him and the Mavericks back.
The Pistons don’t have to worry about that. They have the big to pair with Cunningham who should only improve as time goes on.
The league is also shifting away from single five-out. Two-big lineups are about to be very prominent across the league. Whether it’s Isaiah Stewart or another stretch big, the Pistons will need a big just like Duren to combat the Steven Adams and Zach Edeys and Mitchell Robinsons.
Duren is not a complete player, and may never be, but he’s capable at the things that teams need and does so with efficiency and very little giveback. He’s not a defensive liability or unable to make hook shots. He’s not a weakness on the boards or without and agility or the ability to make reads.
He’s just fine, and his game gets finer every day. That’s the kind of big it’s nice to get in on the ground floor with.