Ace Bailey Hype thread

[SoberasHotRod]

The Jazz are purposefully slow playing Ace's development and right now Ace is bought in to the strategy. He's learning how to be a team player and making a ton of progress in those aspects of the game.

I'm happy with everything so far.

 

[KqWIN]

I just refuse to make conclusions on a 19-year old after 30 games when we’ve seen the type of improvement Keyonte has had.

Ace, unlike Cody has shown plenty of promise. It’s not his fault he wasn’t given a ton of usage early on.

I'm not making a conclusion, just discussing where I think his game will go. Like I said in my post, Jabari is just what I see as a reasonable median outcome. Could be better/worse than that.

 

[Tremendous Upside]

I just refuse to make conclusions on a 19-year old after 30 games when we’ve seen the type of improvement Keyonte has had.

Ace, unlike Cody has shown plenty of promise. It’s not his fault he wasn’t given a ton of usage early on.

His usage rate is 4th highest on the team (which speaks to his tendency to shoot almost every time he gets the ball – 3rd on the team in FGA's). Almost too high, to be honest, considering he's very clearly a negative player on both sides of the ball at this point. But then again, we're tanking. Sometimes.

Yeah... Ace has shown promise. Not trying to make any final conclusions about him, but it's still not a great sign that almost every player drafted around him has turned out to be much more NBA ready.

I don't think we were trying to pick a very raw long term project.

 

[HermanG]

Ace has certainly played some really promising games and he seems like a good kid.

It's just hard to see what his main NBA skill is. In this respect he differs from everyone else in the Top 10 of his draft. The outside shooting has come and gone (his 3pt % is worse than league average at the moment), he doesn't get to the basket (or FT line), he struggles finishing through contact and he can't get separation against defenders.

Ace's "comfort zone" shot is still the same as in college – the (very) long pull-up two. Not a great shot in the NBA. He's generally been at his best playing off ball, mostly ignored by defenses, roaming the baseline for putbacks and alley-oops. That's fine at this point, but obviously not the type of thing he was drafted for. Time will tell how he manages to broaden his skill set.

People keep saying that Ace needs to bulk up for next season, and obviously adding strength will help, but IMO his main focus should be on ballhandling. He's a talented passer, but he needs a lot more confidence in his dribbling to make full use of that skill.

The thing is, he grew tall early and thus was playing as a rim to rim player for most of his youth. He didnt really start to dribble, pass or shoot the ball much until his senior year in HS. So what you saw him do in college was not "who he is", it was "what he was trying to learn".

He has all the intangibles needed to develop into a star. He has both confidence and humility, very high work ethic and team first mentality. He also very clearly loves basketball. In addition he is very athletic, his shooting form and stroke are elite and his size and length are also elite.

Dont let the fact that he is just learning how to be a perimeter player fool you. He is gonna become a real one. I dont care about his shooting% in college since that was the 2nd year of his basketball life that he was shooting the ball in any significant volumes.

 

[HermanG]

I told y'all Key would eventually raise his efficiency while many in here dunked on him. I'm telling you Ace will also get there. It may take him 3-4 years, but he will get there.

He has such a solid and fluent technical base for his shot that I would be amazed if he didnt become a good shooter at some point. Ofc efficiency is not 100% about technique, its also about natural ability and decission-making... but I see no reason to doubt Ace's natural ability to make shots because he doesnt care where he shoots from and can make shots from random spots. There are guys who have to shoot mechanically clean shots from certain spots on the court to be effective, and then there are guys that have shooting touch. Ace is definitely a guy who does not rely on extended mechanics or being at a certain spot.