Fans and pundits often focus on what players can’t do instead of what they can, which has certainly been the case in the young career of Jalen Duren.
We’ve talked endlessly about how Duren can’t shoot, about how he can’t guard in space and how he needs to be a bigger defensive presence at the rim, ignoring the fact that he’s still only 21 years old, even though he came into the league looking like a grown man.
Duren has always been physically commanding, and instead of going away from that, he’s leaned into it this season and is becoming the ideal version of himself, which is a player who dominates the rim at both ends.