Despite the Utah Jazz's struggling 21-50 record, rookie Ace Bailey is emerging as a franchise cornerstone. Bailey recently led the team with 25 points against the 76ers, earning public praise from teammate Jusuf Nurkic for his rapid development and season averages of 13 points per game.
Utah Jazz cannot brag about many positive things in the 2025-26 campaign considering that they are 14th in the Western Conference with a 21-50 record.
Utah Jazz / Schedule
Whilst clearly oriented towards the future, one of the main pieces for their franchise is already making strides in the NBA.
Ace Bailey was controversially selected as the 5th pick last year at the NBA Draft after initially not including the Jazz as one of the preferred destinations in the pre-draft process.
In his rookie season, Bailey keeps progressing, as he was Utah's top scorer in their loss last night against the Philadelphia 76ers, scoring 25 points along with 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
After the game, his teammate Jusuf Nurkic acknowledged a tweet of The Athletic's Tony Jones, where he praised Bailey's development.
"Take you this long to figure out??? Must be nice," Nurkic said in a quote tweet to Jones.
Bailey played 62 games this season, averaging 13 points and 4.8 rebounds on 27 minutes per game.
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