Utah Jazz's Will Hardy Shares His Initial Takeaways of Ace Bailey

The Utah Jazz have seen some bright moments out of their fifth-overall rookie Ace Bailey through the first month of the NBA season.

While Bailey got off to a slow start to his NBA career due to some illness and other variables, it seems that since those early struggles, the longer he's out on the floor, and the more experience he gets, the better he looks on a nightly basis.

In 13 games this year, Bailey is averaging 8.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in just over 20 minutes a night. Within his time as a starter, those averages jump to nearly 14 points a game on 51.9% shooting from the field.

For a 19 year old developing wing like Bailey, the first portion of his NBA career has wound up going notably well. Especially when asking Jazz head coach Will Hardy about what he's seen out of his top draft pick, it's hard to say that he's not impressed with what he's seen so far.

"I've been in the NBA for 16 years; Ace [Bailey] is a freak. He really is. He's a fast learner, and an incredible athlete. He has some innate feel and vision and things that are shockin," Hardy said in an interview on the Front Rowe. "He does one thing a day where I turn to the staff and I'm like, 'Yeah, that was pretty good. Like, wow."

Will Hardy Impressed With How Ace Bailey Started Season

For Hardy, Bailey really began to stick out during his rookie campaign within the first week of action.

Not due to any explosive performance on the floor, however, but for how he handled the turbulence he faced at the start of his rookie season when he had an illness as soon as their season opener was set to tip-off.

“I feel like Ace has had a really good first segment of his career. He had some really great moments in preseason, and then he got sick," Hardy said.

"And you never want to make anybody feel this way, but like the team has to keep going, and so he missed a week, and we had to keep going as a team."

Nov 16, 2025; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA; Utah Jazz forward Ace Bailey (19) looks to defend Chicago Bulls forward Matas Buzelis (14) during the first half at Delta Center. Mandatory Credit: Peter Creveling-Imagn Images | Peter Creveling-Imagn Images

Bailey, for the first nine games of his career, came off the bench. Which, which, for a top-five pick, is bound to have its questions and buzz as to why that may have been. That buzz was even further emphasized when his first few games in the league weren't the prettiest in terms of his scoring efficiency.

But for Bailey, he made sure to keep his head down. He was unbothered and unfazed by the noise, which for Coach Hardy showed some standout traits from his rookie wing.

"He comes back into the fold... His conditioning is a little bit impacted by being sick for a while. So he came off the bench, and he's the fifth pick in the draft. And that doesn't matter to me, but that matters to a lot of people."

"There's noise and, 'Why is Ace not starting?' And he handled it great. It shows that he's a great teammate and that he cares about the team. It's not just about him. It shows a willingness to put his head down and do hard things."

"When there is noise and chatter around you, sometimes it's easy to fall into that and start thinking, 'Yeah, they're right. Why am I not? He understood the reasons. He knew what he needed to do to continue to get more minutes. And he just put his head down and worked. I think that shows a lot of awareness.”

Fast forward a month into the season, Bailey has gotten his numbers back on track from how he started things off. He's begun to get more and more comfortable offensively, the shots are falling, and in the process, has shown off the little innate traits to his head coach to inspire that confidence that he can be a true difference-maker down the line.

So far, so good for the top-five pick.

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