{"id":331908,"date":"2025-12-07T02:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/331908\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T02:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T02:59:07","slug":"jazz-just-scratching-the-surface-with-ace-bailey-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/331908\/","title":{"rendered":"Jazz just scratching the surface with Ace Bailey \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

About once every day, Utah Jazz coach Will Hardy is shocked by something that rookie Ace Bailey does. After shaking a stunned look off his face, he has to mentally log that there is yet another unexplored facet to Bailey\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like hmm, OK, I didn\u2019t know that was an option for us,\u201d Hardy said with some wonder and excitement.<\/p>\n

A rookie season is always one of exploring and understanding the full breadth of a player\u2019s skillset, but the Jazz feel like there is an unusual well of potential when it comes to Bailey.<\/p>\n

He came to the Jazz after a single season at Rutgers and having always been the best if not one of the best players on the court any time prior to his lone collegiate season. That has usually meant having the ball in his hands and being tasked with creating scoring opportunities for himself, because he has always been the best scorer.<\/p>\n

So there aren\u2019t any concerns about his ability to knock down shots or create advantages, ball in hand. What the Jazz are learning is that his defensive capabilities are growing by the day, and that Bailey is a much more versatile offensive player than ever anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just so talented and he\u2019s not even scratching the surface yet,\u201d 18-year veteran Kevin Love said. \u201cThere\u2019s so many things that he does out there that you just say, \u2018Wow,\u2019 and you understand why he was so highly touted coming out as an 18-year-old. His play-making, his passing, it\u2019s just all so natural for him. And as he continues to keep breaking down film and stay in the gym and continue to work, you\u2019re just going to see more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the things that happens for some of these ball-in-hand scorers that are so impressive before coming to the NBA is that they get a kind of all-or-nothing reputation. That\u2019s kind of how Bailey was seen from the outside. <\/p>\n

The perception was that he wouldn\u2019t be a passer, wouldn\u2019t be able to function much off ball and that he would take ridiculous shots every time he got a touch.<\/p>\n

That couldn\u2019t be farther from the truth. It has been a seemingly seamless transition for Bailey to fold himself into a team that is cultivating an identity based on off-ball movement and passing. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to have enough humility to know that there is context to every situation,\u201d Hardy said. \u201cWe as an organization, were very high on Ace in the draft, and so when he comes to us, we\u2019re very excited. But then the actual nuance of, what is he capable of right now, and where could it go in the future? You do have to explore some things.\u201d<\/p>\n

New with the JazzFrom the archivesExtra pointsLauri Markkanen leads fourth-quarter comeback in Jazz win over Nets (Deseret News<\/a>)Why aren\u2019t signs allowed at the Delta Center anymore? (Deseret News<\/a>)Frank Layden\u2019s legacy of joy and humor lives on (Deseret News<\/a>)Around the leagueUp nextDec. 5 | 5:30 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ New York Knicks | KJZZDec. 7 | 6 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz vs. Oklahoma City Thunder | KJZZDec. 12 | 6 p.m. MST | Utah Jazz @ Memphis Grizzlies | 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":331909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,5872,19924,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-331908","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\/331908","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=331908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}