Trajan Langdon said Thursday that talks with Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson have not been moving yet, a sign that Detroit’s efforts to keep two core players are still in the early stages. That matters now because the Pistons are trying to protect the base of a 60-win team while the calendar turns toward next week’s NBA Draft and June 30.
Duren’s situation is the sharper one. He will be a restricted free agent this summer, which gives Detroit the right to match an outside offer if one arrives. Thompson is on a different track, since he is eligible for a rookie-scale extension that would begin in the 2027-28 season, but Langdon’s message was the same: the team wants both players and the conversations have not advanced yet. In May, he said the Pistons would look to retain them.
The delay does not mean Detroit is backing away. It means the front office is still sorting the price of keeping a young core together after the team led the Eastern Conference with 60 regular-season wins and was a win away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals. That kind of season changes the math. The Pistons now have to decide how much of their future payroll is already spoken for, and how much room they want to leave for the next move.
Langdon said Detroit will continue to be very thoughtful and intentional in how it acquires talent, and he said the team will explore help through the trade market and free agency beginning June 30. He also said the Pistons will have the 21st pick in next week’s NBA Draft, and that the choice will come down to fit, value and timing. “For us, it will be, who’s the best player there,” he said, adding that a draft pick may help next year or later, but the team needs young talent that can eventually offset rising costs.
That is the friction inside Detroit’s plan: keep the players who helped fuel the breakout, but do it without boxing itself in. Langdon said the club will not spend heavily on a trade unless it feels worthwhile, because losing future assets can make the next deal harder to pull off. He also said he has not been in communication with Malik Beasley, who played last season in Puerto Rico with the Santurce Crabbers, underscoring how much of the roster picture is still unsettled. For Duren, the next real checkpoint is simple. If the talks do not move before June 30, Detroit will have to decide whether it wants to solve the future now or let the market do some of the talking for it.
