Ace Bailey needs an apology as loud as the disrespect as pieces fall into place

Ace Bailey's start with the Utah Jazz was a little slow, but that made some believe that he would be an NBA bust. Bailey has been sensational since the Jazz gave him a bigger role, and for that, he deserves a massive apology for all the early skepticism declaring his NBA career dead before he had the chance to show out.

Bailey has only continued to look excellent as the Jazz have integrated him further. With each passing game, it's becoming abundantly clear that Bailey is something special who the Jazz have every reason to trust going forward.

At this stage, the only negative aspect of his game is that he's not getting enough reps. The Jazz have brought him up slowly, and while there were a few hiccups along the way (which may have had more to do with his knee injury and his lengthy illness before opening night), Bailey has proven this quickly that he deserves a bigger and better role.

And Utah understands this completely. Now that they are figuring out both what Bailey is capable of and how he fits into their rotation, they have no reason not to see this through. With each game he plays, Bailey has only made the skeptics look dumber and dumber.

The only downside is that as he continues to raise the bar, it will fuel skepticism about how high said bar could even be. Luckily, Bailey has shown that he won't let that get him down. Okay, seriously, what is there not to like about what Bailey is or what he could be in the not-too-distant future?

One possible reason for the Bailey skepticism

The Bailey skepticism may not have much to do with him, but more with what the Jazz had to put up with last year. Between Keyonte George struggling to improve and Cody Williams showing the team absolutely nothing last year, the potential of seeing another young prospect not thriving had to be pretty scary for the fanbase.

Combine that with being the No. 5 pick, the highest one the Jazz have had in years, how exciting of a prospect he was, and the doubts that he would enjoy Utah made many worry about if he truly would be the player the team hoped he would be.

But now those doubts have been eviscerated. It would already have been enough if Bailey could hit threes and throw down a few exciting dunks. However, while he can and has done that, what makes him exciting is that he's shown that he can play winning basketball by making the right play and hustling his tail off.

It took a minute, but Bailey proved he was the right guy at No. 5. Not only that, but at this rate, he's showing that it's only a matter before Utah's back in the playoff mix and won't be a team to be trifled with when they do.