The 2024-25 Utah Jazz season will likely be remembered by who the team drafts on June 25th. This comes after losing a franchise record 65 games and securing the top odds in the draft lottery. Because of this, the team should end up in a good spot on draft night and will be able to add a high-level prospect.
We’re breaking down those prospects as we head towards draft night. Next up on our list is Rutgers forward Ace Bailey.
Stats: 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.0 steals, 1.3 blocks, 46.0% FG, 34.6% 3P, 69.2% FT
Draft Range: top-five pick
Player Comparison: Andrew Wiggins/Lauri Markkanen/Brandon Miller
Ace Bailey is in. The nonsense about the @RutgersMBB freshman not being a team player or one dimensional earlier in the season is laughable. Just watch the highlights from just one game earlier in the season. He will be an elite NBA shot maker. pic.twitter.com/APmEBAPyEs
— Fran Fraschilla (@franfraschilla) April 23, 2025
Bailey is the definition of a shot maker. The 18-year-old is listed at 6’10 and truly has every shot you can think of in his arsenal. He’s a tremendous vertical athlete who can finish above the rim, but also loves to elevate over defenders both from the mid-range and from beyond the arc.
Though he can hit these shots at a high rate, the task to take Bailey’s game to the next level will be consistently generating cleaner looks. Being able to take and make difficult shots at a high clip will always be one of the most valuable skills an NBA player can have, but the best scorers find ways to generate easy ones, whether at the free-throw line or the rim.
Improving his shot diet is something NBA coaches likely spend a lot of time working with him on, but you can’t teach the level of shotmaking Bailey displays off different platforms, angles, and spots of the floor.
His athleticism popped on both ends of the court this year. Offensively, if he was able to find a lane to the basket, he frequently finished above the rim. His 24 dunks were among the freshman leaders in college basketball despite the spacing issues that Rutgers dealt with. Defensively, he was one of just 13 freshmen to have a block percentage of over 4, joining other impressive defensive forwards Cooper Flagg and Carter Bryant on that list.
— Big Ten Men's Basketball (@B1GMBBall) April 23, 2025Ace Bailey 👉 @NBA Draft 👏
We're taking a look back at the star freshman's highlight-reel dunks for @RutgersMBB 👀#B1GMBBall x @AiriousB pic.twitter.com/HLpMDq5GVp
Where Bailey needs to grow the most is as a playmaker. His 1.3 assists per game and 8.3 assist percentage are both marks that will need to grow significantly if he’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot at the next level. It’s noteworthy that Bailey improved as a playmaker as the season progressed, though this still wasn’t at the level you would hope.
The good news is that this skill can be developed greatly as a player learns the game and how he’s being defended. Tightening his handle, making quicker, more decisive reads, playing with more space, and having a better understanding of the shots he should and shouldn’t take within an NBA offense will all help him as he grows.
Big, athletic, two-way wings are a rarity in the NBA and are arguably the most coveted archetype in the league. Add in Bailey’s special shotmaking talent, touch, and growing creation ability, and you’ve got the makings of an extremely high upside pick with a relatively safe floor due to the scalability of his skillset.
I think Ace Bailey is one of the most dynamic scoring threats we’ve seen in recent drafts and would be an exciting addition to Utah’s young core.
More Jazz Draft Profiles
- Utah Jazz 2025 NBA Draft Profile: Cooper Flagg
- Utah Jazz 2025 NBA Draft Profile: Dylan Harper
