{"id":202703,"date":"2025-10-10T13:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202703\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T13:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T13:06:07","slug":"nba-gms-already-calling-utah-jazzs-ace-bailey-a-draft-steal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202703\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA GMs Already Calling Utah Jazz\u2019s Ace Bailey a Draft Steal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Utah Jazz<\/a>, through a wild draft process and leadup to their number five pick in this year’s NBA Draft, were able to get their hands on Rutgers’ wing Ace Bailey<\/a>, a name who was among the top prospects in the class leading up to his selection.<\/p>\n

Now in the months following Utah’s pick of Bailey, general managers are already seeing him as one of the biggest steals on the draft board.<\/p>\n

During the NBA’s annual GM survey<\/a> that asks a variety of questions of topics around the league before the season kicks off, one of those questions asked: “Which rookie was the biggest steal at where he was selected in the Draft?”<\/p>\n

Bailey didn’t land at the top spot, but was tied for second.<\/p>\n

Here’s the full top-five from the survey:<\/p>\n

1. Kasparas Jaku\u010dionis (20), Miami \u2013 17%
T-2. Ace Bailey (5), Utah \u2013 10%
T-2. Carter Bryant (14), San Antonio \u2013 10%
T-4. Joan Beringer (17), Minnesota \u2013 7%
T-4. Liam McNeeley (29), Charlotte \u2013 7%
T-4. Asa Newell (23), Atlanta \u2013 7%<\/p>\n

Among the other rookies that also got at least one vote their way, Jazz 18th-overall pick Walter Clayton Jr. also got some love as the biggest steal.<\/p>\n

But Bailey was the one who got some significant attention his way. While not quite as high as the Miami Heat’s Kasparas Jaku\u010dionis, for a top-five pick to be considered a “steal” shows just how the league feels about the 19-year-old wing: he’s one of the best talents in this year’s class, and if not for the pre-draft commotion, he might’ve been a top-five pick.<\/p>\n

However, in the end, it worked out in the Jazz’s favor. They weren’t concerned with the noise, got their guy at five, and now have a core centerpiece to build around for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"Oct<\/p>\n

Oct 8, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; \/Utah Jazz forward Ace Bailey (19) dribbles the ball as Houston Rockets forward Jabari Smith Jr. (10) defends during the second quarter at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images \/ Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Better yet, Bailey’s representation, led by manager Omar Cooper, who appeared to be the nucleus of canceling pre-draft workouts and preferred draft destinations, would part ways with the Jazz rookie before training camp kicked off<\/a>; a potential red flag for teams who inevitably spent less than four months with Bailey after being drafted, and now makes Utah’s decision to negate that pre-draft noise even wiser in retrospect.<\/p>\n

Now, the sky’s the limit for Bailey in Utah with a strong development staff and a young core to surround him, and a landscape that he can emerge into a true star as in due time.<\/p>\n

Be sure to\u00a0bookmark Utah Jazz On SI<\/a>\u00a0and follow\u00a0@JazzOnSI on X<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on daily Utah Jazz news, interviews, breakdowns and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Utah Jazz, through a wild draft process and leadup to their number five pick in this year’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202704,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-202703","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}