The Jaren Jackson Jr. trade collectively shocked everyone connected to the Utah Jazz, but it took no time at all for everyone to understand why it happened. Even though JJJ appeared in only three games, it was pretty clear what the vision was. It has only looked better since then, and now it could look even better, even though the Jazz weren't even trying to make it better.
The NBA has announced that some lottery changes could be in effect next season, and Yahoo Sports! Kevin O'Connor illustrated how those changes could affect what Utah owes Memphis from the JJJ trade.
"The top-five pick rule will date back to 2025. The Utah Jazz picked fifth in 2025 and second in 2026. Under the new rule, they can’t land in the top five in 2027.
"But the Jazz traded that pick to the Memphis Grizzlies in February for Jaren Jackson Jr., which means Memphis won’t be able to receive it since streaks will be triggered by the original team, not the team holding the pick."
"So effectively, Utah traded a pick that may not even convey to Memphis because of their lottery luck over the past two seasons. They didn't intend this when they made the deal in the first place."
The JJJ trade was made with the intention of Utah giving up their best draft assets for him. It was a steal of a deal, but that doesn't mean it was supposed to be easy. Now, because of the NBA's proposed lottery changes, the deal could get a whole lot easier for them to digest when they weren't even trying to do that in the first place.
There's an easy ramification to this (maybe?)
This isn't fair to Memphis when all they were trying to do was get the most value possible for JJJ. One way this could be fixed is to nullify the proposed rule change if a team, like Utah in this instance, trades away their draft pick, whether it's fully given up or part of a pick swap.
That way, the Grizzlies can keep it regardless of what happens with the Jazz. There's just no defensible way for the Grizzlies to suffer when they had no way of knowing what was coming after this season. The Jazz gave them their pick (potentially) because both sides understood how valuable of a player JJJ is.
For the record, trying to fix this tanking problem is more likely than not going to make it worse. It's not something the NBA can really get rid of, no matter how hard they try. The system, as ugly as it is, is the best one they've got. Making these drastic changes is more likely to hurt than to help.
It's very possible the Jazz will look so much smarter for the JJJ trade should these changes get approved, but they never intended to potentially screw over the Grizzlies to do so.
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