{"id":752986,"date":"2026-06-05T08:57:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T08:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752986\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T08:57:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T08:57:39","slug":"why-the-memphis-grizzlies-were-the-only-team-to-vote-against-nbas-new-lottery-system-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/752986\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the Memphis Grizzlies were the only team to vote against NBA\u2019s new lottery system"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> were the only team to vote against the NBA\u2019s new draft lottery system because one rule could directly reduce the value of a future pick they own.<\/p>\n

The reform passed almost unanimously, but Memphis had a specific reason to object. This was not just about tanking philosophy or competitive balance.<\/p>\n

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The Grizzlies\u2019 issue centered on how the new top-five restriction applies to future picks tied to the Utah Jazz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Nic Antaya\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Memphis Grizzlies stand alone as NBA passes new anti-tanking lottery system<\/p>\n

In a recent Shams Charania post<\/a>, the NBA\u2019s new anti-tanking reform was laid out after the Board of Governors vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NBA\u2019s Board of Governors has passed new anti-tanking rules that include expanding the draft lottery from 14 to 16 teams, a relegation zone where the bottom 3 teams get penalized with lessened chances for the No. 1 pick, and flattened odds,\u201d Charania revealed.<\/p>\n

The vote was 29-1, with the Grizzlies standing as the only team against the change. The new system is expected to begin with the 2027 draft lottery and is designed to make losing less rewarding.<\/p>\n

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It expands the lottery field, flattens the odds and lowers the incentive for the league\u2019s worst teams to chase the No. 1 pick. That makes sense from the NBA\u2019s point of view, but Memphis had a direct asset-management reason to push back.<\/p>\n

Memphis Grizzlies voted no because Utah Jazz pick rule could block top-five upside<\/p>\n

In a follow-up Shams Charania tweet<\/a>, the reason for Memphis\u2019 lone dissent became clearer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grizzlies voted against the new lottery reform solely because of the new rule disallowing a team from picking top 5 in 3 consecutive years,\u201d Charania stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grizzlies have the more favorable 2027 first-rounder of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Utah, and because the Jazz again have a top-5 pick this year, their first in 2027 cannot be in the top-5 under new rules,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

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That is why this mattered so much to Memphis. The Grizzlies own the most favorable 2027 first-round pick among Cleveland, Minnesota and Utah, but Utah\u2019s recent top-five history now limits how valuable that path can become.<\/p>\n

If the Jazz would have been bad enough to land another top-five pick in 2027, the new rule can stop that outcome. That means Memphis loses the kind of high-end lottery upside it likely believed it had when evaluating that asset.<\/p>\n

For the league, the rule is about stopping teams from living at the top of the draft. For the Grizzlies, it changed the future value of a pick already sitting on their books. That is why 29 teams could support the reform while Memphis had every reason to be the lone holdout.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Memphis Grizzlies were the only team to vote against the NBA\u2019s new draft lottery system because one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,1914,91940,294,293,177,4070,6,567,181,427],"class_list":["post-752986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-basketball","tag-draft-lottery","tag-draft-lottery-system","tag-grizzlies","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-nba","tag-shams-charania","tag-the-grizzlies","tag-utah-jazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116696674912013424","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}