Pistons' Jalen Duren Reportedly Has Interest In Trade To Celtics, But There's a Catch

Duren is involved in a messy contract dispute with the Pistons, and apparently has some interest in joining the Celtics. It won't be easy to make that happen

May 5, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons center Jalen Duren (0) dribbles defended by Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) in the second half during game one of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

NBA Free agency has officially begun, with teams now able to legally negotiate with players and agree to deals. Those deals can’t become official until July 6, when the league’s accounting is complete and the new league year begins, but many players are now spoken for. 

The Jaylen Brown saga doesn’t seem to be any closer to a resolution, which is putting the Boston Celtics in a tough spot. Because they don’t know what players they might be getting in a Brown trade, they have no real ability to come to agreements with players in these opening hours of talks. 

But one big name has apparently expressed an interest in the Celtics: Detroit Pistons All-NBA big man Jalen Duren. 

“I know Jalen Duren’s side has some interest in a potential sign-and-trade exit, not to L.A., not to Sacramento, but to Boston,” Jake Fischer of The Stein Line said during a live free agency stream. “We know the Celtics, regardless of what happens with Jaylen Brown, we know the Celtics are looking at frontcourt reinforcements.”

On the surface, it feels like a stroke of luck falling Boston’s way. Duren is a 22-year-old center who made the All-Star team and third-team All-NBA this season. He’s one of the most relentless offensive rebounders and a rugged defender who averaged 19.5 points and 10.5 boards. Even if his offensive game is limited, he’s only scratching the surface of what he can be. 

Of course, he had a massively disappointing playoff run, which is a big reason why he’s in a messy contract dispute with the Pistons. They don’t want to commit max money to a player with his limitations, coming off a concerning postseason. 

Not only have the Pistons leaked that they won’t entertain a sign-and-trade, actually getting one to work is immensely difficult for Boston because of an obscure provision in the collective bargaining agreement. 

If Duren agrees to a sign-and-trade, he becomes a base year compensation (BYC) player. BYC is a mechanism aimed at closing a loophole in salary matching where teams could sign any of their free agents to a massive salary just to game the system. Essentially a new team that low-balled the old team, but still needed to make up a salary-matching gap, could sign one of their end-of-bench free agents to whatever that gap was and trade him to make it legal. 

With BYC, the trading team can only count 50% of that player’s salary for salary-matching purposes, while the acquiring team counts the entire salary. 

So if Duren is signed to a $40 million deal in a sign-and-trade to Boston, he would only count as $20 million for the Pistons, but he’d count as $40 million for Boston. That complicates things greatly, because the Pistons would have to add players, which would throw the balance of the trade out of whack. 

It’s not impossible, but it’s an added wrinkle that throws things off for the Celtics if they were interested. Multiple teams would likely have to get involved, making the whole thing even more complicated.

Again, the Pistons have already shot down the concept, and such a trade between the top two seeds in the conference last season would be extraordinarily unusual. Duren might also simply be posturing it get a deal done. But even if he was serious, executing the deal would be a massive challenge.