Following Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart’s suspensions, the Detroit Pistons will have to manage without their top two bigs for multiple games.
The pair were each handed a suspension for their role in a fight that broke out on Monday in a game against the Charlotte Hornets.
They began serving their suspensions on Wednesday, where the Pistons were able to head into the All-Star break on a high by besting the Toronto Raptors on the road.
Duren only has one game left on his suspension — which will be served on Feb. 19 against the New York Knicks — while Stewart’s seven-game suspension won’t see him able to return until March 3.
While missing out on the chance to contribute for the East-leading Pistons is going to be tough for both players, there also carries some financial forfeit with their suspensions.
Stewart will miss out on $724,138 of his pay, while Duren will forfeit $89,423. The NBA calculates player’s pay reduction for suspensions by taking 1/145th of their base compensation for each game missed.
The longest-tenured Pistons player, Stewart’s base salary is $15 million, while Duren is finishing out his rookie contract on a team option for a base salary of $6,483,144.
Adding in the two Hornets players, Miles Bridges and Moussa Diabate — who each received four-game suspensions — and the total forfeited salaries total over $1.5 million for the incident.
The Pistons and Hornets each receive a tax variance credit for 50% of their player’s forfeited salary. While none of that lost salary goes back toward the Pistons’ salary cap, their total taxed salary at the end of the season will be reduced by about $407,000.
Detroit passed its first test without Duren and Stewart on Wednesday, but there’s still another key matchup against the Knicks where both will be absent, followed by Stewart missing an important stretch of the season.