Ace Bailey is a thrilling prospect because of his upside as a scorer. But in his rookie season, on a Jazz team that doesn't have much playmaking around him, Bailey will still have to fight for buckets. He won't have the luxury of putting up huge numbers on the Jazz because even as a rookie, opposing teams will have him near the top of the scouting report.
There isn't enough offensive firepower elsewhere to let Bailey slip through the cracks and get a bunch of easy looks, so any buckets he gets will need to be manufactured a lot of the time.
Luckily, Bailey's size, length, and high release make him a good candidate to manufacture shots. Unluckily, that doesn't mean they'll go in, as he's also adjusting to the pace, size, and strength of NBA defenses on the fly like all other rookies.
Early on, despite the shots not going in, Bailey has created some decent looks. That's a positive development. Them going in regularly is the next step, and he's gifted enough as a scorer to believe they will.
Ace Bailey is getting decent shot attempts early in Jazz career
Big shoutout to Twitter user @YaBoyyyJohn for compiling all of Ace Bailey's shot attempts through four games. The first thing that jumps out here, to me anyway, is that most of these are pretty good looks!
Every Ace Bailey shot attempt in 52 minutes so far this season in order pic.twitter.com/CfKmwNo1ld
— John 🇨🇻 (@YaBoyyyJohn) October 30, 2025
As odd 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 shots in the first place. Bailey shot 34.6% from 3-point range in college, and it would have been much higher if so many of those looks weren't self-created.
So even when the shots do start falling for Ace this year, he won't blow anyone out of the water with his efficiency, and that's fine. An overwhelming majority of rookies are incredibly inefficient. Even examining the advanced stats for rookies is essentially a waste of time. They're just getting their feet under them!
My panic meter for Ace Bailey is zero right now. He's not even registering on the panic scale. A few weeks from now, after he drops 25 in a game and everyone asks, "How did this guy drop to No. 5 in the draft," his slow shooting start will be completely forgotten. Because scoring will be tough for Bailey this year. Luckily, he's a tough scorer.