Jalen Duren thinks Detroit Pistons are ‘smarter, better, stronger,’ and ready to win a championship

At 22 years outdated, it isn’t stunning that Detroit Pistons heart Jalen Duren is missing endurance on the basketball courtroom.

The NBA All-Star is not anticipating the Pistons to have any extra rising pains. In truth, he believes the Eastern Conference leaders are ready to win a title now.

“I appreciate where we are at in the moment, but I also understand there is a bigger goal,” Duren lately advised Andscape. “To some folks, it would sound loopy, however we are trying to win a championship. We’re not trying to wait.

“We feel we have the guys. We have the coaching staff. We have the mentality, play style to do so. And we’re trying to go get it.”

For the Pistons to be a title contender, All-Star guard Cade Cunningham shall be anticipated to lead them there. Cunningham, a potential NBA MVP candidate, will want offensive assist, nevertheless, as defenses deal with him. Lately, Duren has appeared able to being that much-needed No. 2 scorer to complement Cunningham within the Pistons’ title chase.

Duren is making his case for the NBA Most Improved Player award this season. He’s averaging a career-best 18.2 factors per recreation (up almost seven factors from final season) in addition to 10.6 rebounds. At a brawny 6-foot-10 and 250 kilos, he has picked up his recreation the final three video games, averaging 26.6 factors on 68% taking pictures from the sector and 14 rebounds. Tonight, Duren and the Pistons will host the Cleveland Cavaliers on ESPN (7 p.m. ET).

Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff is not stunned by Duren’s current emergence.

“He’s special because he can look in the mirror and evaluate himself honestly, then he is able to ask for input on how to get better and attack it every single day,” Bickerstaff advised Andscape. “He’s got courage that most people his age don’t have to find a way to improve past insecurities.”

For Duren to be speaking a championship is outstanding contemplating how downtrodden the Pistons weren’t way back.

Duren was chosen with the thirteenth general choose within the 2022 NBA draft out of the University of Memphis. This was a season after Cunningham was chosen first general by the Pistons, and the franchise endured a depressing 20-win season.

It really bought worse.

In Duren’s first two seasons, the Pistons received 17 video games beneath head coach Dwane Casey in 2022-23 and 14 video games beneath head coach Monty Williams in 2023-24. The 2023-24 Pistons additionally set an NBA report with 28 consecutive losses.

Through all of the loss and embarrassment, Duren mentioned he by no means needed out of the Motor City.

“That’s not my character. That’s not me. I’m super loyal. I hang my hat on loyalty. I was raised on loyalty,” Duren mentioned. “These are my brothers, man. Honestly, I do not simply say that simply because we’re all on the identical group. I actually love these guys. So, in my head, taking a look at it, I did not see a dangerous group. I used to be younger. I knew we had items. We had been simply lacking one thing.

“Experience would be the easy thing to say. We were just missing something. We were missing a lot, actually. But for me, I just never saw it as this is not going to work. I always knew that once we figured some things out, grabbed a couple pieces, established a culture, maybe we can be something.”

The Pistons employed Bickerstaff after hiring Trajan Langdon as president of basketball operations in the summertime of 2023. Detroit did have a wealth of younger expertise in Cunningham, Duren, ahead Isaiah Stewart, ahead Ausar Thompson and guard Jaden Ivey. Langdon added veteran ahead Tobias Harris through free company and drafted ahead Ron Holland II fifth general in 2024. The Pistons turned the primary NBA group to triple their win whole from the earlier season by ending 44-38 final season — Detroit’s first profitable report for the reason that 2015-16 season.

Duren gave Bickerstaff credit score for the turnaround by establishing expectations and a tradition that the gamers “bought into.” Duren added that the Pistons have “a lot more room to grow.”

“It’s just a testament to the work — a testament to the character of the guys that we’ve had here with what we went through,” Duren mentioned. “I take a look at it as a studying expertise. I do know the world is taking a look at it like, ‘Wow, they misplaced so many video games and they had been a dangerous group.’ I by no means felt like we had been a dangerous group. I simply felt we simply had to determine it out.

“We were a young team. [We took] a lot of lumps early in our [careers]. We haven’t fully figured it out. But we figured out our culture, who we wanted to be night in and night out. Right now, we’re just building in it.”

In 2025, the No. 6-seed Pistons earned the proper to play the third-seeded New York Knicks within the first spherical of the playoffs. The Pistons, with out an injured Stewart, cut up the primary two video games and rallied from a 3-1 sequence deficit, however the Knicks received the sequence 4-2 with a dramatic 116-113 victory in Game 6.

While expertise was gained for the younger Pistons, Duren continues to be pained and impressed by that sequence defeat.

“It hurt a lot, man. I never went back and watched it because, honestly, I didn’t want to see it,” Duren mentioned. “I replayed every part in my head. From my standpoint, I might have helped far more. It was a good studying expertise simply to get our toes moist, perceive what the playoffs are, perceive what it is going to be, the way it’s going to be tough. And I feel it was good for us. Honestly, I felt we might have received that if a couple various things went our manner. It was a robust one. …

“I’m glad that we’ll be back stronger, better, smarter. We’ll be better.”

The Pistons have the most effective report within the Eastern Conference (43-14) and the most effective profitable share within the NBA (.754), forward of the Oklahoma City Thunder (45-15, .750) The Boston Celtics had been 5½ video games behind the Pistons within the East standings coming into Thursday. The Pistons are on tempo to attain 50 wins for the primary time for the reason that 2007-08 season.

While assured with large goals, Duren maintains that the Pistons have not forgotten the place they got here from and nonetheless have a lot to present.

“We are humbled by where we were and where we’ve been,” Duren mentioned. “Another factor is character and the mindset that everybody understands we’re hungry for extra. We have not achieved something. We have not received something, and we have not been anyplace. We misplaced within the first spherical final 12 months. So, it is nothing to actually be big-headed about. We don’t have anything to be strolling round immodest about. We’ve bought a lot extra work to do.

“Now we’re starting to get rolling. I don’t even talk as if we have accomplished anything. We haven’t done anything yet. But we’re further than we were.”

Duren has additionally superior in his personal profession as a first-time All-Star. Two days earlier than the All-Star Game reserves had been named, Duren advised Andscape that he would not imagine he lastly obtained the respect till he formally heard his title. Those goals got here true. He came upon when his All-Star choice was introduced on the Jumbotron at Little Caesars Arena in the course of the Pistons’ 130-77 win over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 1.

“It feels amazing,” Duren mentioned throughout NBA All-Star Weekend. “It’s a enormous honor. With a company as historic because the Pistons, to be a a part of their historical past and be a a part of all of the issues that guys have achieved earlier than me, it is a enormous honor. I can not ask for [anything] extra.”

Like the robust standout Pistons earlier than him — Ben Wallace, Dennis Rodman, Rick Mahorn and Bill Laimbeer — Duren does a lot of soiled work within the paint and is not afraid to present toughness. He served a two-game suspension for initiating an on-court altercation throughout a Feb. 9 recreation wherein he shoved Charlotte Hornets heart Moussa Diabaté within the face.

Duren mentioned it is “a match made in heaven” to play for the Pistons, and he’s very acquainted with the historical past that features three NBA titles and “The Bad Boys.”

Duren mentioned he’s proud to characterize the Pistons’ franchise and Detroit.

“It’s an honor. A lot of former players come back to support,” Duren advised Andscape. “The tradition that we now have now is not new to town. It is not new to the group. This is one thing that in all probability bought misplaced over time however was again within the ’80s with Isiah Thomas and Rick [Mahorn] and all these guys, and even [Rasheed] Wallace.

“They carried a sure sort of grit and sure sort of vitality with them. It was like, ‘You’re not going to outwork us. We’re going to are available in right here, play onerous, out robust you, outwork you.’ And they had been profitable with it. I really feel we sort of adopted that mindset and that mentality. …

“It’s simply now taking place the place we are getting the sunshine. Cade was, however we [overall] “They are just now getting the light because we weren’t as successful as we are now.”