There may have been a little drama when the Utah Jazz drafted Ace Bailey, but that was quickly put to rest. Since then, the Bailey hype train has come in full force and doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. Getting lost in all the Bailey excitement is that it was pretty miraculous the Jazz wound up with him in the first place, which is hard to see happening again.
A Utah Jazz executive harped on exactly this when talking to Spotrac's Keith Smith.
“When Ace was on the board at our pick, it sure took a lot sting out of dropping in the lottery. All the stuff about him pre-draft and not wanting to come to Utah, that was all just nonsense. He’s excited to be with us, and we’re thrilled to have him,” the exec said.
Even if Bailey won't play his first NBA game for another three months, he's been exciting enough that the Jazz have every reason to believe they got the right guy until further notice. However, this is not a miracle that the Jazz can regularly depend on around draft time when they're playing the lottery.
The reason they had the chance to select Bailey in the first place was that his rather unorthodox pre-draft conduct led him to drop to them. Had that not happened, Bailey may have started his NBA career with a different team, and there's no telling who the Jazz would have had instead.
Typically, teams don't care about how players conduct themselves before the draft and take that player anyway. The fact that they went the opposite route with Bailey is actually the exception, not the norm. This isn't all to fire a shot at Bailey. It's all to emphasize how blessed the Jazz should feel that they are in this position.
After it looked like the tank didn't work out, Bailey fell into their lap, and while that could set the course for a very glorious future, something the Jazz should know full and well is that lightning doesn't strike twice.
That won't stop the Jazz from tanking again
In case it was not clear before, even though they got the worst possible outcome in the lottery back in May, the Jazz have every intention of tanking again. This time, they have pulled out all the stops to ensure they get another high-ceiling prospect (without cutting corners to do it).
They may get luckier in 2026 in terms of how high their pick will be. No matter how things turn out, they just can't expect another outcome similar to the one they just had with Bailey in case the worst-case scenario happens again.
If anything, how this situation has turned out should make fans appreciate Bailey more, even though they've made it clear from the get-go that they very much do. The Jazz can get lucky in other ways in the future, but don't expect that luck to manifest itself in the same way it did with Bailey.