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.
