The Memphis Grizzlies acquired what they believed was an unprotected first-round pick from the Utah Jazz in February's Jaren Jackson Jr. trade. However, that pick is now top-five protected under the NBA's newly approved "3-2-1" lottery reform.

The restriction stems from Utah landing in the top five in both the 2025 and 2026 lotteries. Under the new system, prohibitions against landing in the top five in three consecutive years travel with the pick rather than the team, meaning Memphis now holds a less valuable asset than the one it negotiated.

The league did not grandfather the Grizzlies' pick or similar traded picks, a decision that drew immediate scrutiny. NBA executive vice president Evan Wasch defended the approach on a conference call with reporters Thursday.

"If you were to grandfather traded picks, you essentially differentiate those picks as being more valuable than all other picks," said Wasch. "That didn't feel like a systematically fair way to go about this."

The league informed all teams of this mechanism before Thursday's vote. Memphis was not the only franchise potentially affected. The Dallas Mavericks' situation with a 2027 top-two protected pick traded to Charlotte and the Houston Rockets' unprotected pick swap with Brooklyn were also cited as examples subject to the same restrictions.