Utah
Ryan Smith on Ace Bailey coming to Utah: ‘He’ll feel love like he’s never felt before’
SALT LAKE CITY — Austin Ainge called landing Ace Bailey a “dream scenario” for the Utah Jazz — and he’s likely not the only one in Utah who feels that way.
For three seasons now, Jazz fans have had to endure an unclear rebuild, looking for a youngster to pin their future hopes on.
Is that Taylor Hendricks? Cody Williams? Keyonte George? Isaiah Collier? Kyle Filipowski? The early returns are … no. Sure, all could end up being helpful players, but franchise-altering guys? That’s a stretch.
After the Jazz fell to No. 5 in the lottery, it once again looked like the team would miss out on that type of talent.
But Bailey — a consensus top-three pick for much of the last year due to his unique scoring ability — was still on the board when Utah’s pick came up.
Sure, there were red flags (shot selection, defensive intensity, a disappointing freshman year, and everything about how he handled the draft), but his All-NBA talent was obvious.
So in the end, it didn’t matter that his pre-draft process was a bit unorthodox … or that he refused to work out for any team … or that he (or his camp) reportedly wanted him to land in Washington, Brooklyn or New Orleans … the Jazz bet on Bailey’s upside — and took their swing at a star.
“Our philosophy and where we’re at as a team is we want to take the best player on the board, and we love Ace,” Jazz owner Ryan Smith said on the Pat McAfee Show on Thursday. “I got a chance to talk to Ace last night, and all I saw was a kid who was humble. He was grateful. He was excited to be in the NBA. And I think that’s all you can ask for from our standpoint.”
As for Bailey’s apparent hesitancy to come to Utah — a place he’s never visited before — Smith isn’t worried. The Jazz owner said it’s natural for people to be uncomfortable, but he thinks Bailey will fit right in with the organization and the state.
“Probably doesn’t have a lot of experience out west, here with Utah. That’s our job to go make him love it,” Smith said.
With the Jazz, Bailey should have a long runway to develop. The Jazz have long lacked a go-to wing, and he’ll likely get opportunity — and shots — from the start.
Utah might not have been Bailey’s preferred destination, but Smith is betting it becomes the right one.
“I think the picture is our head can lead us to a really weird spot. It limits all the opportunities in front of us,” Smith said. “I think if you went down the entire draft board and said, ‘What is everyone’s preferred destination?’ It is probably not the right move for them that they think it is in their head.”
Bailey’s pre-draft process was one of the bigger stories leading into the draft. ESPN even reported that Bailey’s representatives informed a team drafting inside the top five not to take him, and that he wouldn’t report if they did.
Bailey’s agent Omar Cooper defended the pre-draft decisions, telling ESPN: “Every NBA team watched him work out in Chicago. He did 18 interviews. Everyone got his medical. They watched him run and jump. They got his measurements.”
Cooper, though, declined to address questions about the Utah Jazz or Bailey’s future with the franchise when asked by ESPN.
Cause for concern? Not to Smith.
“I’m confident in our state. I know that he’ll feel love like he’s never felt before,” the Jazz owner said. “People are fired up to have him. And the reality is, there’s nothing that Ace and others can’t accomplish here.”
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
Utah
Jazz Injury Report Rules Out 7 Players vs. Raptors
The Utah Jazz are set to face off against the Toronto Raptors to kick off their new week for their second of two meetings across this season, where the Jazz in particular have ruled out a total of seven names on their injury report.
Here’s what the injury landscape looks like for the Jazz and Raptors rolling into the night:
Utah Jazz Injury Report
OUT – Isaiah Collier (hamstring)
OUT – Keyonte George (hamstring)
OUT – Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee)
OUT – Walker Kessler (shoulder)
OUT – Lauri Markkanen (hip)
OUT – Jusuf Nurkic (nose)
OUT – Blake Hinson (two-way)
QUESTIONABLE – Cody Williams (shoulder)
It’s much of the same from what the Jazz have been dealing with across the past couple of weeks.
Keyonte George and Lauri Markkanen still remain out with their minor injuries that they’ve suffered past the All-Star break, and Walker Kessler, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Jusuf Nurkic remain out for the year with their respective season-ending injuries.
However, the two names that stick out on this injury report against the Raptors in particular are their two first round picks from the 2024 NBA Draft; Isaiah Collier who’s out with a hamstring injury, while Cody Williams is the latest to be among those listed with a shoulder issue.
For Collier, it’s set to be a third-straight game that he’s been out due to what’s been labeled hamstring soreness, and thus leave the Jazz without both their starting and second-string point guard for the night.
That could lead to either two-way signee Elijah Harkless getting a starting nod for a second straight game following his elevation against the Philadelphia 76ers, or that spot could go to 10-day signing Kennedy Chandler, who played 35 minutes in that same game for a career-high 19 points in his team debut.
As for Williams, he’s been downgraded to questionable for the action due to shoulder soreness; something that could leave him still able to go before tip-off, but remains to be seen based on how he feels before gametime.
The second-year forward has been on a hot streak as of late. In his past five games, he’s averaged an impressive 19.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.0 assists, shooting 50.0% from the field throughout.
If Williams is out of the mix, it’ll leave their frontcourt a bit more shorthanded from what they’ve been used to across the past couple of weeks, and might lead to even more minutes for guys like 10-day signee Bez Mbeng and two-way big man Oscar Tshiebwe to fill those minutes.
Toronto Raptors Injury Report
OUT – Immanuel Quickley (foot)
OUT – Jakob Poeltl (rest)
QUESTIONABLE – Collin Murray-Boyles (illness)
When it comes to the Raptors, they’ll be without a couple of guys on their roster, Immanuel Quickley who’s slated to miss out due to a foot injury, while Jakob Poeltl won’t be playing for Toronto’s second leg of a back-to-back following their previous battle against the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
Collin Murray-Boyles, on the other hand, has been upgraded to questionable against the Jazz with an illness after previously being out against the Nuggets over the weekend.
Tip-off between the Jazz and Raptors lands at 9 p.m. MT in the Delta Center, where Toronto will have their chance at a 2-0 series sweep over Utah depending on the results.
Utah
POST-GAME: André Tourigny 3.22.26 | Utah Mammoth
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Utah
Utah chef’s cake didn’t have enough booze, Food Network judges say
After hitting a snag and suffering through what he called “the biggest embarrassment” on national TV, chef Adalberto Diaz managed to narrowly avoid elimination during the premiere episode of Food Network’s “The Ultimate Baking Championship.”
“I’ll make you proud,” Diaz told the judges when the show revealed he would be claiming the final spot in the top 10 and moving forward in the competition.
But during the second episode of the season, the Utah chef behind the Salt Lake City bakery Fillings & Emulsions once again found himself in a far from ideal situation.
Adalberto Diaz faces criticism on ‘The Ultimate Baking Championship’
After an intense first episode that eliminated six of the top pastry chefs from across the country, Diaz found himself in the competition’s top 10.
The first challenge of the episode tasked the remaining bakers with putting a modern twist on a classic dessert. Diaz did OK in this round, creating strawberry shortcake canapés that put him in a three-way tie for fifth place with 11 points out of 20.
But like the premiere episode, things took a turn for the worse during the second challenge.
Diaz and his fellow bakers each had 2.5 hours to create a geometric layered mousse cake. The Utah chef’s specific assignment was to give his cake a tropical and boozy theme — something he said he felt confident about given his Cuban heritage.
The chef went to work creating a blueberry mojito gelée cake with mango mousse, topped off with a chocolate hibiscus flower. He gave it an ocean look with dark blue coloring.
In a blind taste test, celebrity guest judge and pastry chef Amaury Guichon said Diaz’s final product wasn’t the right interpretation for a boozy dessert. There wasn’t enough booze in the cake, both Guichon and judge Duff Goldman said. Guichon also criticized the amount of dark blue coloring Diaz used and said it wasn’t a natural look.
“This cannot be served in a restaurant,” Guichon said.
Diaz, who was watching the judging on a screen in another room, became emotional as he heard the feedback.
He told his fellow pastry chef and competitor Juan Gutierrez that it hurt to get that kind of criticism on the show because as an older competitor, he doesn’t have as much time for improvement in his career as the younger chefs.
“We should be already there,” a visibly upset Diaz told Gutierrez.
After all of the judging, host Jesse Palmer revealed that Diaz was once again among the bottom competitors for the round. And, just like the premiere episode, the Utah chef ended up narrowly avoiding elimination.
Diaz received a 15 out of 30 for his cake, bringing his cumulative score for the episode to 26 points.
Oralia Perez, a pastry chef based in Houston, got eliminated from the competition with a cumulative score of 25.

Now, Diaz moves forward as one of nine remaining chefs competing for $50,000 in “The Ultimate Baking Championship.”
The show airs Monday nights on Food Network, with episodes available for streaming the following day on Discovery+ and HBO Max.
Who is Adalberto Diaz?
Diaz’s colorful macarons and fruit desserts are on display at Fillings & Emulsions in Salt Lake City — which the chef has described as an “eclectic Latin bakery with a French flair.”
“The last 12 years I have invested everything I have, everything, into my pastry shop,” Diaz said during “The Ultimate Baking Championship” premiere episode, which included footage of his new location that features bright murals painted by his brother to highlight their Cuban heritage.
“When I win this competition, it will be a dream come true and that money is gonna go straight into my business and my amazing team of chefs and pastry chefs,” he said during the premiere episode. “I want to make sure that we make it out of these harsh economic times.”
Diaz emigrated from Cuba in 2000 and made a home in Utah, where he quickly began working in the food industry. He worked at a few places around Salt Lake City over the next decade, and earned the American Culinary Federation’s title of Pastry Chef of the Year in 2012. He opened Fillings & Emulsions the following year, as the Deseret News reported.
The chef’s appearance on “The Ultimate Baking Championship” comes on the heels of being nominated as a semifinalist for the prestigious James Beard award for outstanding pastry chef or baker.
“I am part of this community and this community has welcomed me to be part of it, and even bigger, this country welcomed me when I came here, and gave me an opportunity to be more where I am today,” Diaz told the Deseret News last year after his James Beard nomination. “And I wish that opportunity was given to more people because you don’t know how they would change the world.”
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