Pistons' Jalen Duren reaches starter criteria, increasing QO

Fourth-year center Jalen Duren will be heading to restricted free agency next summer after failing to come to terms on a rookie scale extension with the Detroit Pistons before the 2025/26 campaign began.

After making 78 starts last season, Duren started his fourth straight game to open 2025-26 on Monday, giving him an average of 41 starts over the past two seasons. As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, the 21-year-old big man has now reached the starter criteria, increasing the size of his qualifying offer by approximately $649K.

Detroit will have to issue Duren a qualifying offer to make him a restricted free agent in 2026, which is essentially a foregone conclusion. According to Marks, Duren’s QO amount had been $8,966,188, but has increased to $9,615,393 as a result of meeting the criteria.

The 13th overall pick in the 2022 draft, Duren has averaged a double-double each of the past two seasons and is off to a solid start again in ’25/26. Through three contests, he has averaged 15.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocks in 20.0 minutes per game.

Ordinarily, qualifying offers are just placeholders for players and teams to work out longer-term deals, but two players — Cam Thomas and Quentin Grimes — accepted their one-year QO’s this offseason, giving them the ability to veto trades. They will be unrestricted free agents next summer.