The Utah Jazz roster, heading into draft night, was youthful and hopeful but severely lacking in a number of areas.
The Jazz didn’t have a young player with clear star potential, there are serious defensive deficiencies and there wasn’t anyone on the roster who could create their own shot and also score with high efficiency.
The front office clearly looked to address those issues with their first-round draft picks on Wednesday night.
With the No. 5 overall pick, the Jazz selected Ace Bailey out of Rutgers. Bailey is an incredible scorer who is skilled and unafraid and has a ton of upside as a potential star.
He’s also lengthy at 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot wingspan and profiles as a player who could end up being an elite defender. He’s one of the few players in this draft class who can create his own shot without a screen.
“Ace is extremely talented — shot maker, big, long, athletic," Jazz president of basketball operations Austin Ainge said. “His scoring gets a lot of attention, certainly...but watching a lot of film of him, was impressed with his defensive effort and particularly his rebounding.
“A lot of weak side blocked shots, and his joy and energy for the game. We do a lot of background calls and work on guys and everyone loves being around Ace. He’s fun, smiles every day, just a breath of fresh air in the gym.”
Recently, Bailey had been a hot topic in the NBA news cycle. He is the only American prospect who did not work out for a single team during the predraft process, and there had been numerous reports that he preferred a destination where he would have an immediate high-impact role.
Of course Bailey, who is 18 years old, was not the person declining workouts and telling reporters that he had teams he preferred to play for. Those were decisions made by his agent.
When asked on Wednesday night what he wanted to say regarding the way the predraft process played out, Bailey said he just concerned himself with training and playing and let his team (agent and family) deal with everything else.
When pressed further and asked if it was him who made any of those decisions, he said it was not.
The Jazz were unconcerned with the decisions of Bailey’s representation team and were thrilled he was available when it came time for them to make their pick.
It’s not uncommon for a team to draft a player who has not worked out for them. Many of the Jazz’s most recent picks did not work out with the team prior to being drafted by Utah, and a number of other teams have similar stories when it comes to who they draft versus who they work out.
“It’s not super uncommon,” Ainge said. “Been through many times through the years, and you know, we were able to meet with Ace at the combine and speak to him in person.
“Obviously saw him play a lot — being highly rated high school player and college player — so we got to see him quite a bit.”
And in watching Bailey play, the Jazz saw a player who has incredible potential to be a future cornerstone for the team, one who could serve as a major building block.
The Jazz also saw some of that potential, serious scoring and two-way ability in their other first-round pick, Walter Clayton Jr., out of Florida.
In fact, they liked his potential so much that they traded up to get him.
“Two weeks ago, we sat down and looked at our picks and said what would be the best case scenario and these were the two guys that we really wanted, so we feel very fortunate and very excited to have them in the family,” Ainge said.
Coincidentally, Clayton also did not work out for the Jazz, but the team had expressed interest over the last few weeks. Neither player has ever been to Utah, but what they know about the Jazz is that it’s a team with an undefined future, which gives them ample opportunity to really make a name for themselves, and that is exactly what the Jazz want them to do.