​Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren scored 24 points on 8-for-9 shooting in his preseason debut Wednesday night, a 128-106 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in Minneapolis. He played just 15 minutes and did not return after halftime, and he went 8-for-8 from the free-throw line with three rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block.Head coach J.B. Bickerstaff liked what he saw from the opening jump. “I thought he was aggressive. He looked really fast and quick. He was attacking, playing free on both sides of the floor. I thought he did a great job setting the tone for us. Again, it’s his first go at it, but it’s just going to continue to get better,” Bickerstaff said in his postgame media availability.Jalen Duren Started and Set the Tone Right AwayDetroit opened the game with Duren, Cade Cunningham, Duncan Robinson, John Collins and Ausar Thompson, the first time this preseason that all five of the expected regular-season starters had played together. That group is the most likely starting lineup when the Pistons host the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 3 p.m. ET at Little Caesars Arena, the first game of the NBA’s season-opening tripleheader on NBC and Peacock.The Debut Followed a Summer-Long Contract StandoffWednesday was Duren’s first game action of the preseason. He had been absent for all of Detroit’s voluntary September workouts, the first week of training camp and the first two exhibition games while his contract talks ran into October. The two sides finally agreed on Oct. 1 to a five-year, $200 million fully guaranteed extension, ending a standoff that had carried through the summer and into training camp. Duren had turned down offers between $170 million and $190 million over the summer and had objected to the weight clauses Detroit attached to some of them. He accepted hours before a deadline to take or reject a one-year, $9.6 million qualifying offer.Duren Has to Live Up to the $200 Million DealThe 22-year-old is now paid like one of the top centers in the NBA, and the Pistons need him to take another jump to justify it. Detroit went 60-22 last season, won the Central Division and earned the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games in the conference semifinals. Getting back to that level, and past Cleveland, means Duren has to be a reliable second option behind Cunningham for 82 games.One 15-minute preseason run does not settle that. But a Duren who attacks the way he did Wednesday night is a different problem for opponents than one who waits his turn, and that is the version Detroit just paid for.