{"id":271944,"date":"2025-11-08T22:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/271944\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T22:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:20:08","slug":"ace-baileys-quick-thinking-could-be-greatest-asset-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/271944\/","title":{"rendered":"Ace Bailey\u2019s quick thinking could be greatest asset \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders<\/a> newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Friday.<\/p>\n

The start of the 2025-26 season did not play out the way Ace Bailey had hoped. Heading into opening night, Bailey was sick and tired, literally.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d try to kick the illness \u2014 time in the sauna, extra recovery, constant fluids \u2014 but instead had a cough and was out of breath after short stints playing. So the first handful of games were hard to get through.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s got his wind back, he\u2019s not getting as fatigued during the games and he\u2019s starting to get a feel for his teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think his effort level has been really high,\u201d Jazz coach Will Hardy said. \u201cI\u2019m really pleased with Ace\u2019s progress through this very short first part of the season, because he shows every day that he has the ability to learn and to learn pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not had a breakout game yet. But the No. 5 overall pick from the 2025 draft has had some standout moments. There have been blocks, steals, high-flying rebounds, quick passes, sharp closeouts, nifty footwork and lightning-fast cuts.<\/p>\n

But maybe the most impressive thing so far has been some impressive decision making.<\/p>\n

In a loss to the Detroit Pistons this week, Bailey showed off a number of his skills, but there was one moment that stood out<\/a>. He crashed hard from the corner to get a rebound, and as he came down with the ball, delivered a perfect dump-off pass to Lauri Markkanen in traffic.<\/p>\n

Bailey said that the way he processes things is coming along, and that he is looking forward to being able to see plays develop at an even faster pace. But that\u2019s underselling one of his most impressive traits.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s shown the ability, really early on, to make quick decisions,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that we\u2019ve urged him and his teammates to do. But like, one of the first plays he was in tonight, that rebound to dropping it to Lauri, that\u2019s not a play you\u2019re seeing a lot of young players make. So you get to see the flashes of his ability to process what\u2019s going on in the game really fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

At such a young age \u2014 he recently turned 19 \u2014 Bailey has plenty of time for his game to develop. But in less than 10 NBA games, he\u2019s shown that he might be able to see the game better than was ever thought based on what he did at Rutgers.<\/p>\n

Making quick decisions and processing situations at a rapid pace could end up being one of his greatest assets.<\/p>\n

New with the JazzFrom the archivesExtra pointsUtah Jazz\u2019s young players could learn a lot from Svi Mykhailiuk\u2019s journey (Deseret News<\/a>)Jazz players grappling with news that Walker Kessler will miss the season (Deseret News<\/a>)Celtics\u2019 Jaylen Brown blames officials as Jazz celebrate gritty \u2018team win\u2019 (Deseret News<\/a>)The Jazz miss the infectious intensity and energy of Collin Sexton (Deseret News<\/a>) Around the leagueUp NextNov. 10 | 7 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Minnesota Timberwolves | KJZZNov. 11 | 7 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Indiana Pacers | KJZZNov. 13 | 7 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Atlanta Hawks | KJZZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was first published as the Jazz Insiders newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,5872,19924,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-271944","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-news-feed-local","12":"tag-newsletters","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}