Ace Bailey Opens Up on Utah Jazz Training Camp Experience

We're now a couple of days deep into the Utah Jazz's training camp before the 2025-26 NBA season, where new and existing faces of this roster have gotten their feet wet in the building with team practices and scrimmages, all in preparation for the regular season to come at the end of this month.

It's also marked a chance for Jazz fifth-overall pick Ace Bailey to get a few reps his way in the facility to prepare for a big rookie season ahead, also getting to know his new teammates and their play style around them in what's one of the youngest cores in the NBA.

So far, the biggest takeaway for Bailey through the early motions of training camp is simple: there's a lot of learning to be done.

"I'm learning. A lot of learning," Bailey said after a Jazz practice this week. "A lot of mess-ups. But it's fun, though. Everybody's having fun and enjoying it."

Bailey has less than one week to go until he'll finally get an opportunity to play in a live-action game again in preseason for the first time he's been on the floor since Summer League.

But before he gets that underway, he's been making sure to soak up some wisdom from some of the surrounding veterans on the Jazz roster.

"I'm learning a lot. A lot of the vets been pouring into me, like Kevin Love, a lot of them," Bailey said. "Just, how to rebound, how to get positioning... It's a lot of stuff I'm learning that I'd never knew that would be important to the game of basketball, so that's a good thing."

It's not just the simple ins and outs of the game that Bailey's been able to catch onto through camp. Part of that learning process centers on getting to know those around him and their tendencies on the court, spanning from Jusuf Nurkic to Lauri Markkanen.

Slowly but surely, he's been navigating his way around with everyone.

"I'm learning as we go, so that's a good thing. I'm learning [with] Nurkic right now. Lauri's got to get back, I've got to learn how Lauri plays," said Bailey. "We spend time off the court, that's team-bonding, get to know each other on the court. All of that plays into effect as well."

Jun 25, 2025; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Ace Bailey stands with NBA commissioner Adam Silver after being selected as the fifth pick by the Utah Jazz in the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

That learning process won't stop once the season gets rolling past training camp either. If anything, it'll be emphasized even futher.

In a year that'll be set up for development and progression around a young Jazz roster, that setting allows a complementary environment for Bailey to grow even further into a polished product, while also having the aid of multiple veterans like Love, Kyle Anderson, Georges Niang, and others around him.

An exciting year of growth lies ahead for the Jazz, and it's a challenge that Bailey himself is eager to take on.

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