Are the Boston Celtics kicking the tires on a trade for Memphis Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr.? According to Matt Moore on his Hardwood Paroxysm newsletter, the Celtics indeed have (or at least had) interest in trading for the Grizzlies forward. “The Boston Celtics would love to add Jaren Jackson Jr.,” writes Moore. “There is no team I’ve heard with more interest for Jackson. The problem, of course, is what kind of deal that looks like.”
It is important to remember that in the weeks leading up to the trade deadline, a lot of negotiating through the media goes on. Teams often leak ‘interest’ stemming from routine calls all teams around the NBA make over the course of an NBA season. These leaks are almost always devoid of the context they happen in – and, importantly, when those calls were made, and what sort of players teams were seriously considering moving. For Boston, it is no secret they were trying to move former Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons ahead of the start of the 2025-26 NBA regular season, and early in the current campaign.
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Since then, the Celtics have reportedly balked at attaching draft capital to get off his contract, which makes sense given how well he has since integrated into Boston’s rotations as a sixth man showing much better defensive chops than he has shown at any point earlier in his career. Per Moore, however, “obviously, the Anfernee Simons contract is a starting point” for any Jackson swap. “I think Boston was open to more… radical options last summer, but I have no reason to think they’d include any of the key guys outside of Payton Pritchard, and that would probably be hard,” he adds.
Nov 12, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. (8) goes to the basket against Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown (7) during the second quarter at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images
Instead, Moore suggests a “pick-heavy trade package with some nice talent or tradeable contracts (Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez)” given Memphis being a club that is starting over with such a move. And while he may be right that no other team is likely to top such an offer, there are reasons for that, as he notes, as good a fit as he might be in a switch-heavy style of play.
For one, Jackson is not a great rebounder, which is not alone a deal-killer given Jayson Tatum’s propensity for boards when healthy. But his extension, which will begin paying him $49 million next season, and $53.5 million by the end of his contract in 2029-30. Add in that Jackson has averaged only 58.1 games per season before this campaign, and you have a lot of eggs in one basket in an era that savages teams leaning into such a model.
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Be sure to consider in the fact that this would put Boston right back into the second apron too soon to have gained relief from their last tenure as such a team as well.
Finally, sprinkle in the difficulty of filling out the rest of the roster on minimum deals, with a healthy dose of trying to replace the forwards likely going out in such a trade (Sam Hauser, Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman – pick two, including one you REALLY don’t want to give up), and the whole exercise seems a bit far fetched, to be generous.
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This article originally appeared on Celtics Wire: Are the Celtics interested in a trade for Grizz big Jaren Jackson Jr.?