Jazz learns a hard Ace Bailey lesson they should have known all along

Ace Bailey is an exciting prospect because of his upside as a goalscorer. But in his rookie season, on a Jazz team that doesn’t have many plays around him, Bailey will still have to fight for buckets. He won’t have the luxury of putting up big numbers on the Jazz because even as a rookie, opponents will have him at the top of the scouting report.

There isn’t enough offensive firepower elsewhere to allow Bailey to slip through the cracks and get a bunch of easy looks, so the buckets he gets will have to be manufactured a lot of the time.

Fortunately, Bailey’s size, length and high release make him a good candidate for taking shots. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they will go in, as he, like all other rookies, is also adapting to the pace, size and strength of the NBA defense.

Early on, despite the shots not going inside, Bailey has created some decent looks. That is a positive development. Submitting regularly is the next step, and he is gifted enough as a goalscorer to believe that will happen.

Ace Bailey is getting decent shot attempts early in his Jazz career

Big shoutout to Twitter user @YaBoyyyJohn for collecting all of Ace Bailey’s shot attempts through four games. The first thing to note here, for me anyway, is that most of these look pretty good!

As strange as it sounds, getting shots in the NBA is a pretty big skill in itself. You can’t be a bucket getter if you can’t get to the photos in the first place. Bailey shot 34.6% from three-point range in college, and it would have been much higher if so many of those looks weren’t self-created.

So even if the odds fall in Ace’s favor this year, he won’t blow anyone out of the water with his efficiency, and that’s fine. An overwhelming majority of newbies are incredibly inefficient. Even researching the advanced stats for rookies is essentially a waste of time. They just get their feet under them!

My panic meter for Ace Bailey is currently at zero. He doesn’t even score on the panic scale. In a few weeks, after he drops 25 in a game and everyone asks, “How did this guy fall to No. 5 in the draft,” his slow shooting start will be completely forgotten. Because to score shall It will be difficult for Bailey this year. Fortunately, he is a difficult scorer.