{"id":737953,"date":"2026-05-18T23:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/737953\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:24:15","slug":"lakers-predicted-to-pair-luka-doncic-with-struggling-19-million-pistons-all-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/737953\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakers predicted to pair Luka Doncic with struggling $19 million Pistons All-Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lakers predicted to pair Luka Doncic with struggling $19 million Pistons All-Star<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s safe to assume the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> closely monitored the Detroit Pistons<\/a>\u2019 Eastern Conference Semifinals series vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Why? Because the Pistons\u2019 struggling All-Star center has been on the Lakers’ radar for the past few months, and the consensus was that the Memphis Product\u2019s uninspiring play in the series could bolster Los Angeles<\/a>\u2019 odds of prying him from Detroit this summer.<\/p>\n

Considering that\u2019s exactly what occurred, Lake Show Life\u2019s Tyler Watts <\/a>believes the Lakers could pull off a beneficial free agency move.<\/p>\n

\u201cJalen Duren<\/a>\u2019s playoff struggles increased Lakers’ chances of stealing All-Star big man,\u201d Watts wrote Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cLuka wants a lob threat center to be his pick-and-roll partner. Duren scored 1.45 points per possession in those situations during the regular season, which is better than 91.8 percent of NBA players. Now imagine what he could do playing with the best pick-and-roll creator in the world?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe 22-year-old big man must be put in positions to succeed. He shouldn\u2019t be creating off the dribble or having to do too much. The Lakers are the perfect spot. Luka<\/a> will feed him lobs and easy buckets at the rim. Duren can focus on protecting the rim and anchoring the defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Watts alluded to, Duren\u2019s performance in the playoffs wasn\u2019t an accurate representation of who he is as a player. In addition to being a low-post bruiser capable of bullying weaker opponents in the paint, Duren is an explosive vertical athlete who can track down just about any pass and finish above the rim emphatically.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t sleep on the former lottery pick\u2019s rim protection, either, as he\u2019s fully capable of severely altering shots with his length and impressive hang time.<\/p>\n

Of course, the Lakers’ chances of landing Duren will hinge on the Pistons\u2019 stance on their 19.5 points-per-game center following their second-round playoff exit<\/p>\n

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More NBA news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakers predicted to pair Luka Doncic with struggling $19 million Pistons All-Star originally appeared on The Sporting News.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737954,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,193,188,912,251,150,508,6,32227],"class_list":["post-737953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-basketball","tag-cleveland-cavaliers","tag-detroit-pistons","tag-jalen-duren","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-luka","tag-nba","tag-tyler-watts"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116598162393362546","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}