Restricted free agent Jalen Duren is in the middle of talks that have not moved yet, and Trajan Langdon said Thursday that the same is true for Ausar Thompson. Detroit is trying to retain both players while the calendar turns toward the NBA Draft and free agency.
Langdon said, "They haven’t been" when asked how the negotiations had been progressing. He added, "Those will be conversations that will be had. But to be completely honest, you will never know how those conversations go," a pointed answer that left the immediate status unchanged.
Detroit’s April-to-June squeeze
The Pistons led the Eastern Conference with 60 regular-season wins, so the front office is now trying to hold together a team that has already climbed into the top tier while managing the cost of keeping it intact. Duren enters restricted free agency this summer, while Thompson is eligible for a rookie-scale extension that would begin in the 2027-28 season.
That makes the timing awkward. Langdon said in May that Detroit would look to retain both players, but on Thursday he also said the negotiations have not been progressing yet. For a team trying to keep its core together, the gap between intent and movement is the part that matters most.
Draft picks and free agency
Detroit holds the 21st pick in next week’s NBA Draft, and Langdon said the team will keep being very thoughtful and intentional about how it acquires talent through trades or free agency. He said, "That’s the tricky part, is trying to balance everything, trying to find things that fit," and added, "We’re having internal thoughts and talks every day right now, the closer we get to that time."
His trade comment was blunt: "If it’s a trade, then it has to be a trade that we feel is worthwhile. We’re not going to go out and give out too many assets for a player. … Not having those assets down the road (can) hamper us in terms of making another move." That frames the offseason as a sequence of linked decisions, not separate ones.
Malik Beasley and Detroit
Langdon also said he has not been in communication with Malik Beasley. "No, I have not," he said. "He doesn’t have an agent right now, either. So that would make it hard."
The Pistons now have two retention talks running alongside a draft slot and a free agency date of June 30. For Detroit, the immediate test is whether those internal conversations turn into terms before the market starts moving and the cost of keeping the group rises further.
