Ace Bailey taken by Jazz at No. 5 in NBA Draft after not working out for Utah to cap bizarre predraft process
A curious and unpredictable predraft process for one of the most talented players in the NBA 2025 draft has rightly ended in a curious and unpredictable way on Wednesday evening as Bailey, the Rutgers Wing which canceled a meeting with the Philadelphia 76ers (which has chosen n ° 3) last week and which would have did not work for the teams Picking in the top five, was selected n ° 5 in total by Utah Jazz.
Ace Bailey tackles the decision not to work for the teams before the NBA draft: “I just work on basketball”
Jordan Dajani
Bailey did not organize jazz training in the accounting of the recovery and preferred Washington, New Orleans or Brooklyn above Utah or Charlotte, according to ESPN. His camp has apparently intentionally sabotaged his stock in order to get him out of the top five to one of the wizards, the Pelicans or the nets – which held choices n ° 6, 7 and 8, respectively – only for jazz to win the high chicken game.
Bailey ranked like player No. 4 in the final classification of CBS Sports Big Board of the 100 best hopes for the NBA recovery in the classroom and has been largely considered for months as a player among the first three. His audience falling with Philadelphia last week, however, reported that he was unlikely to be at stake at No. 3, and Charlotte was a long time in love with Kon Knueppel – whom they selected on Wednesday – at n ° 4.
It is difficult to call the selection of Bailey at n ° 5 a draft autumn But it is easy to call for the past few weeks a failure of public relations. Not only did his representation not directed him to a favorite destination, but he landed in a place he would have preferred not Landing and all this time took a substantial blow in the public sphere with the way he sailed in the process.
Despite all that, Bailey fell into a situation in Utah where he could enter a big role from the first day and be invited to assume a significant charge. No team won fewer games last season than jazz, which finished 17-65, and for a pure scorer like Bailey, he joined an offense that finished 21st points per game last season and desperately needed juice at this end of speech.
