There was no player more harshly criticized than Jalen Duren in the first round of the 2026 playoffs. Plenty of others earned critiques with their play, and others still helped send their teams home early by underperforming; it’s going to be quite a long summer for Nikola Jokić in that regard . The young Pistons center is not alone in his struggles to begin the postseason and far from the only one to get an earful from the greater viewing masses. But even so—Duren was torn to shreds . The 22-year-old made his playoff debut against the Magic in the opening round of this postseason and fell flat on his face in his face, and even that is a bit of a rosy view of what unfolded. Orlando cooked up a perfect scheme to shut off Duren’s easy points and exposed his complete inability to score outside the structure of a Cade Cunningham assist.…