The Philadelphia 76ers are shooting for the championship this season, but before that, regaining supremacy in the Eastern Conference will be key. One of the teams they will have to trample to get there is Detroit, which finished as the first seed in the regular season in the previous campaign. However, with All-Star big man Jalen Duren keeping his confounding act up, the Pistons are bound to get more vulnerable than expected.
Even at this juncture with training camp set to commence, Duren and the Pistons have yet to find a resolution on their well-document impasse over the All-NBA Third Team big man's contract extension. Heck, Media Day kicked off for Detroit without Duren. By maintaining his current stubborn stance up, the 76ers are slowly watching one of their fiercest competitors in the East lose its signature edge.
The 76ers stand to benefit as Pistons deal with Jalen Duren drama
Detroit had the league's second-best defensive rating last season, and Duren was a major part of their dominance on that end. There is a good chance that he still ends up playing for the Pistons in the looming campaign, but even if he does, his strained relationship with the franchise, especially up top, could very well adversely affect the way he approaches the game.
With Duren playing a big part as a defensive anchor and enforcer, the Pistons are one of the very few teams equipped to deal with Joel Embiid and the team's litany of scorers on the defensive end. However, if Detroit gets the version of him similar to the one that showed up in the playoffs (which was flat-out disappointing, they can kiss their title hopes goodbye. Even finishing with homecourt advantage in the East could be difficult.
Given the more competitive outlook in the East right now, the 76ers will take whatever development that results in one of their rivals getting weaker. That seems to be where the Pistons are headed. While they made some heady additions in free agency, they also lost Tobias Harris, their second-leading scorer in the playoffs, Isaiah Stewart, their best rim protector, and in spirit, Duren himself.
The 76ers are locked in on their title hunt that they cannot afford to pay too much attention on their competitors given that they have their own puzzles to solve. However, positioning matters in the much-improved Eastern Conference, and last season's top seed likely seeing their win total drop this season will definitely be music to the ears of the Philly faithful.
