REVELATION: Ace Bailey’s Passing MAKES Waves—Utah Jazz Rookie DELIVERS Unexpected Playmaking
Ace Bailey is doing something different and stunningly it involves passing. Next on Locked on Jazz. You are Locked on Jazz, your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, part of the Locked On podcast network. your team every day. How are you? I’m David Lock, radio voice, Utah Jazz, Jazz MBA insider. This is Locked on Jazz. It’s your daily podcast on the Utah Jazz, giving you insight, expertise, geeky numbers, and hopefully making it way better to be a Jazz fan each and every day. Thank you so much for making Locked on Jazz your first listen of the day. And thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network. Greatly appreciate that. Today’s show, got a fun one coming up for you. We’re going to wrap it up with Wills Wednesdays. Some interesting comments about Ace Bailey’s defense and Thompson’s defense as well. So, we’ll look at that if we get to it. I got interesting comments about a rookie Hayes things. And we’re going to look deeply at Ace Bailey’s passing. One of the things I think has changed here in Ace Bailey that we’re going to look at together is it looked to me that he was playing almost exclusively from like 10 to 25 feet and now all of a sudden is making plays inside 10 feet which is a pretty dramatic thing and their passing plays which is counter to absolutely everything everyone told us about Ace Bailey before he got here which makes this even more fun. Today’s show is brought to you in part by Game Time. Download the Game Time app and create an account and use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. Jazz off today. Brooklyn Nets tomorrow. New York Knicks the next day. So, this should be fun uh to to watch. All right, let’s we’re going to watch a bunch of video today, which is a risk on my part because I’m never good at this, but I think with the road setup, it’s going to work. Okay, that’s so optimistic, but let’s hope that it does. All right, I want to start with the Rockets game. We’re going to watch a collection of assists by Ace Bailey over the last five games. And if you’re on audio, I’ll make it work. I promise. The thing that I think gets interesting here in regards to this with Ace Bailey um and the assists is you’re going to see that some of them are absolutely rudimentary for the hustle. Some of them are absolutely rudimentary in in what they do. And some of them on the other side are really neat developmental things, but I actually think both of them are important. And this is a little misleading, frankly, because we’re only watching assists, not just passes. So, obviously, every single one of these will look like Ace Bailey is sharing all the time. But the essence of this is the word on him coming in was that he didn’t pass, that he was a ball hog, that he took terrible shots, and that he didn’t understand the game. These will portray a completely different picture. And that’s that’s the thesis statement here. The first the and again, we’re just looking at assist. So it’s not we’re not like going through the film and finding every time he missed a guy or there was someone open he didn’t get to or something like that, which would probably be a more accurate way to do this. We’re looking at the positives. The second thing I think you’re going to see as we run through these five days worth of assists are you’re going to see decision making. Now I will say this and I I I don’t know you know I’ve never coached this. He’s being put the Jazz are doing a very good job of putting him in the right position. One thing I’ve been told over the years is if you’re coming from the top you have to make multiple reads. If you’re coming from the wing, you have to make one read. And you’ll see multiple times here where he just has to make one read. He’s not making passes that are what I would call once removed. In other words, there’s the obvious next pass, this guy came to me, I make it, and the next rotation comes and I throw over the top to the next removed guy. I haven’t seen that pass yet. That’s pretty high level. I’m not expecting him to be Magic Johnson, but the fact that he’s willing to move the basketball like this does tell me that I think when you suddenly start giving Ace Bailey the ball more and more and more, he’s going to be a five or six assist guy a game. So, let’s watch this first one. Some of these are just pretty, as I said, are rudimentary, but we watch this first one. This is against Houston. He’s trailing. Comes full steam in the open floor. Gets the ball in a fast break circumstance. This is a very basic read. We’re at a fast break. He’s catching at the top of the key. Nerkage is down on the right side. He’s got an edge on Thompson, so he’s going to go in the lane. And Shenun’s going to just come over to cut him off. And Ace just very creatively kind of drops the pass two-handed underneath to Nerkage. But like this is an instinct play where the guy cut in front of you and you didn’t go over him to take it try to dunk on him. You didn’t try to take the charge. You didn’t. And it’s pretty interesting. This decision is made at seven feet. And he hands it off to Nerk for an easy layup. Again, that’s not like world class stuff. It’s the second play, first play of the game or first bucket. It’s pretty interesting. Here’s the next one. Again, this seems really rudimentary, but Keonte George has it. The Jazz have the uh have the Rockets rotating. This is the opening part of the third quarter and the setup is that Lowry is in the left corner. Ace is high left and Keonte has the ball all on the right side and Keiante swings it to Ace and he is wide open and can take that shot and he doesn’t and rotates the next pass to the corner to Lowry Markin for three. I might argue this is the most important play we’re going to look at the whole time because if you want to be a rookie and get along and have your teammates decide that you’re all right, this is the play that you have to make. and he his recognition that Lowry Markin is our best player a little bit for the hustle and that I’m going to make this play to get to Lowry Markin is really important to the Jazz and who they are as a team and also to this question of like who is Ace Bailey and what’s his makeup and that to me is one of the most important things. All right, this last one we’re going to watch he is again it’s a one read play but again the decision is made at about 7 8 ft away from the basket where I think he’s making more decisions than he has in the past boy the hustle Durant was aware of the rookie nice sorry about that I keep having to go back because the NBA site as we’ve often talked about uh is not one of the greatest of all time And so it has a tendency to just shut down. I mean, that’s amazing. What a career. All of uh so let’s look at this one for a second. This one’s pretty basic. Uh but it’s again the we’re not at the willingness to pass and the fact that he makes these plays. Okay, pin down. Ace is in the left corner. Pin down with Lowry Markin. Nerkage finds him. The first pass is not available to Lowry. Ace decides to drive baseline. Nerkage comes down. We’re just playing back. Gets it back. Now we’re just playing basketball. It’s a handoff. It’s basically a low pick and roll. This This play tells me two things. The Jazz coaching staff are putting him in a position to succeed. This is a very simple basic read on the wing. He doesn’t have to make multiple reads. Credit to the coaching staff to put him in positions to make success. Nerkage hands it off to him. But this also tells you he’ll be able to play pick and roll because this is basically a pick and roll. and they and Shangon comes up to the point of the screen. Smith does not switch so he’s doubleteamed and Ace Bailey off the dribble throws a pocket bounce pass to Ysef Nerkage for layup. That’s a pretty nifty play right there because he had to read that Shenon was not dropping was playing at the level of the screen and he had to read that Smith was still on him and didn’t go to Nerkach and he makes a play and if the next play when he really develops and becomes all everything he’s going to be is going to be that he then takes that next P when Shingun drops or Smith switches that he actually then takes a pull-up jump shot out of that. These are I don’t want to underplay this. Like I don’t want to make this suddenly seem like these are all so like these I these are interesting plays and passes that this kid is making for again someone who was literally not supposed to be able to make any of these plays. Right. That was the book that we had on him when we got him is that he wasn’t going to make any of these plays. It’s just not true. All right, here’s uh Houston game night before. Pretty. This one’s again, he pops out. He drives the gap. This is fabulous. This one’s a little more complicated because there’s two choices, but it’s angle right. They’re in a zone. I think Lowry’s in the right corner. He gets the edge on Aaron Holiday. A quick quick decision there by uh Ace Bailey is the best part of this. He drives the gap. He comes to coming over is Clint Capella to him. Smith’s on. He’s got to make what? He could either go to Lowry in the corner. He gives it off to Nerkach for the little push shot in the lane. It’s a really nice read. Again, it’s a read at five feet. It’s a really nice play there by Ace Bailey to make the play at 5T. And we’re just seeing him make more and more of these type of decisions. So, let’s go to the Sacramento game with our beautiful purple court. Keonte drives, gives it inside to Nerk. Nerk rotates out to Ace Bailey. Ace Bailey touch passes to Sim Kaiuk for a drive and maybe a generous assist there. But the beauty of this play is Ace. The Jazz want him to play in 0.5. That is a radical different change for Ace Bailey to play in 0.5 seconds. He never had to play in 0.5. He got the ball. He gets to decide what he wants to do every time as a young player because he’s the best player on the floor. And on this play, a Keonte drives. Nerkage rotates it. Ace Bailey not only plays in five, he plays in 0.1. He decides, he has decided before he gets this basketball that he is going to touch past. literally never comes into his grip. He touch passes it in and out of his hands immediately to Mky Luke who drives the lane. This goes back to the play before with Lowry. This is a willing passing teammate that players are going to want to play with. He very easily could have taken this as a three. Zack Lavine’s closing with not a lot of space. He could have easily pump faked and driven the baseline to be selfish. There may be a day where we want him to do these things, but Ace Bailey literally touches it in one motion and never comes down with it. Does feuke. That’s kind of cool. More of this. I got a few more things to look at. This is pretty exciting and this is totally different than what we were told we were going to get with you Jess. Today’s show is brought to you by my good friends over at Intercap, Brock Woreren, their president, Steve Carter, our own personal loan officer. Intercap Lending is a mortgage company that’s shaking things up by making home loans accessible, straightforward, and personal. Whether you’re buying your first home, refinanceing, or exploring options as a veteran, Intercap is there to guide you. It is not your average mortgage lender. They have been with us for over seven or eight years now. They are people first, and we have our own dedicated loan officer in Steve Carter. That’s incredible. It’s the greatest customer service person in the world. 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We are free and available on all podcasting apps. And thank you for making Locked On your number one sports podcast network. I want more Ace Bailey, baby. I want more Ace Bailey. So, let’s do more Ace Bailey. You’re going to see this reoccurring theme continue here with Ace Bailey. Uh so, there was the Sacramento. The last one we watched was the single uh against Sacramento. He actually had two assists in that game. Uh and the second one is not as exciting, but just since I said we uh since I said we were going to look at all of them, we will. And here is here’s this last one. Ace Bailey comes off a pin down from Lowry. Catches it on the far side of the floor. Doesn’t turn the corner. Instead, dribbles, gets himself in a little trouble, and then this is maybe the most impressive pass he makes of all of these because this is the one time I would say he’s one removed. Zack Lavine comes over the baseline and Ace Bailey from the right. block at about five feet away. Skips it over the top to Mai Luke who hits the three. So, Ace Bailey comes off a pin down on the right side. In this case, he doesn’t quite make the.5 decision. He thinks he’s coming back off a pick from Lowry. He’s in a little bit of trouble. He splits two defenders. A third one comes to him. He jumps in the air and he throws the pass across the court to Mu. What jumps out to me about this play? One is that’s a long pass. It’s not an obvious. Two, he’s clearly not thinking shot first. Like he drives the lane. He’s in the air 5t outside the basket. He very easily could force a shot here. He’s not thinking pass first. Again, this is so contrary to everything that we were told. the Utah Jazz were going to get from this kid. It’s just not what he he is so dramatically different as a instinctual basketball player. And he was asked after postgame the other night on how he how he’s making these decisions and doing these things and he just says, “Well, it’s just instinct. God gave me talent.” Okay, if that’s the case, then his instinct is to play with his teammates. And that is certainly not what I think a lot of people thought we were getting. Here’s against Golden State and then we’ll watch the final ones after this one. Here he is again. Just a quick push pass to Keiante and Keonte makes a play. This is not That one’s probably the most he kind of had to. He had to get off the ball. Let’s just move past it to the next one which is this one’s pretty interesting. Accees in the right corner. Keonte and Nerkach are going to play pick and roll at the top. The ball is going to come to Bailey. He’s going to drive the baseline. And you’re going to see the same thing. You’re going to see Ace Bailey instinctually make a pass rather than taking a shot when he could have. Again, we’re only watching the assist. We’re not watching every play. I’m sure there’s plenty of plays where he’s forced. He’s not perfect. But here’s the pick and roll. It’s a pick. Keonte bullets the pass to Ace Bailey instead of pick and roll with Nerk. And Nerk makes himself available very nicely. This where Nerk’s much better than people give him credit. And Ace blows by Moody. The last defender is Quinton Post. Frankly, Ace could probably fly over the top of him and at some point probably should to draw a foul because he does not play with a lot of contact. We could probably debate for a while on this one whether eventually Ace should be the one thinking a little bit more aggressively to make the play. He beats Moody on a beautiful pump fake. He’s driving, but it’s a simple underhand scoop to Nerk who’s the open man because Jimmy Butler’s late rotating and Nerk just pushes up a three-foot pushup. So, we could probably discuss at some point we would like Ace Bailey to be more aggressive and go make that play. But on the other end, that is again that’s the right play. And if when Ace Bailey has his day, he’s going to get plenty of opportunities on these. All right, let’s watch the final three of the last five games against the Lakers when he again here is this one’s Collier drives and Ace has it on the wing and he drives the baseline. Two guys come to him and this one’s pretty creative. He bounces the pass between Jake Loravia and DeAndre Eaton into Nerk in the pocket. LeBron was late defensively. It’s there. Ace really had nothing going there. So that’s a pretty good read by Ace as he the plays the spacing’s terrible. All five Lakers are in the paint. This play is busted. There’s seven on the shot clock. There’s nothing good happening here. And because DeAndre Aid doesn’t close tight enough, Ace with a really good bounce pass inside to Nerkage. And again, that decision being made at about 8 ft. He was not playing in this range before. Okay, open floor third quarter late. Kind of a two for one opportunity. Baileyy’s working one-on-one on the Ravia. Drives the left hand in the air. help defense comes over from I’m not sure whom because I can’t see who that is Philip open ace in the air jump pass back to Philipowski and frankly Philipowski this is a really good play by Ace because oh that’s Maxi Kleba because I’m not sure that I think Philipowski made himself particularly available here and Ace does a pretty good drive driving left hand again very easily going to be forcing up a shot here two defenders come to him his instinct as he looks back to see where guys are. Flip is available at this point and Ace is able to stay on it long enough to make a play. I’ll give a Flip a little bit more credit as I watched that the second time he came in and make available. That’s a great read. All right, final one. Fast break open court. Ace Bailey has it. Very simple, but again, LeBron’s backpedaling. Reeves is there two on two. He has the edge. This shows the instinct to get up off the basketball and he finds the best player on the team. Lowry Markin in a circumstance we were down four with 40 seconds left and we needed a three. I don’t know if Ace Bailey did that because of time and score. There’s some other moment where we’ve seen him not know time and score, but the overall thesis of those five those five games worth of assists, decisions being made at five to six to seven feet, a willingness to pass there, those are all opportunities almost all of them where he could have shot as well, probably would have missed. It’s why his shooting percentage is what it is. And just an overall, if we’re just going to go that this kid is playing on instinct still right now, an overall instinct to pass the basketball and involve your teammates. Pretty awesome to see. All right, we continue. It’s Will’s Wednesday. We’ll try to get some of that for you coming up here. I’ve got two cuts coming up from uh Will Hardy. One on Ace Bailey’s next step defensively, which I thought was really interesting. And then what makes a great onball defender in about talking about Aman Thompson of the Rockets, probably the best on ball defender in the entire NBA. Today’s show is brought to you in part by our friends over at Game Time. Game time is the official ticketing app of Locked On and is there for you to make sure that you can get into all the great events right now. Download the Game Time app today. Use the code locked on NBA for $20 off your first purchase. The World Cup is coming back to North America for the first time since 1994. So with 48 teams, it’s the first time ever. It’s going to be massive. Let’s be this tickets are going to be hard to partly to be a part of it. So that’s why Game Time is here for you to give you the advantage in the clutch getting your tickets finally give fans the real advantage you need. 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Uh the first Rockets game is this one. Uh Will was wearing a Let’s see. Will was wearing a new hat and a new jacket. So, a little bit of a different look. I’m hoping the audio comes through here. This is my hope. I can hear it when it’s going. So, I think it’s going to work. work. Actually, I think it works better when I’m on the road than I’m at at home is my hope. But here is Will talking about the next step for Ace Bailey defensively. And if I don’t if I unmute the microphone, then that would probably help. Hey, old guy. Technical stuff has the ability to cover a lot of ground. Um, in particular, in the last couple of weeks, there have been a few closeouts where he’s going from a foot in the paint to the three-point line in what seems like a step and a half. um his understanding of our scheme continues to grow. Um you know the the individual piece for Ace right now is walking the line of providing great resistance and competing on the ball and being physical without fouling. Um, I think right now we have some possessions where it’s one or the other. It’s either like my hands are totally back and I’m taking contact to the chest and I’m kind of getting pushed around a little bit or I have my hands in and those are the ones where he gets called for a foul. So, we need to continue to work with him to find a little bit of that middle ground. But his effort, his communication, his ability to cover um to cover ground, I think is is continuing to improve. Like I’m very optimistic about Ace’s ability to impact the game defensively. So I think that’s working. I’m seeing a little bit of a reading, but I’m not seeing as big a reading as I want and I can hear it. So I I would think it’s working, but I’m a little tentive because these Will Hardy ones have never worked as well as I want them to. Um the big takeaway there was that the is I thought was interesting. So, we saw the game in which Ace Bailey gets six fouls in 10 minutes and they’re all with his hands out and he’s touching. He’s doing this and now we have him playing with his hands back. You can literally see him defending and then he’s getting kind of bowguarded and overrun. And so, there’s a middle ground we’re trying to play with here to get Ace to figure out. I so really I thought it was a really interesting look kind of in at what the development of a player has to be uh in in this process to try to get good enough and how you’re just teaching Ace every second of every minute and in college he’s just so good and long defensively there was just no problem he just got all it done and now all of a sudden he has to learn all these different aspects of it and you know I will watch it against Brooklyn and New York is he reaching is hands back is he putting up any resistance on the ball uh to see that his length does do marvelous things and he plays so hard. All right, I thought this was really fascinating. Ben Anderson of KSL Sports Zone, KSL.com asked about Amen Thompson and what you have to do about him defensively. I thought this was fascinating for two reasons. One, Will’s going to talk about the wasted dribble and that how he’s like just a vulture on wasted dribble. And the second thing is the last part that will talks about is that the maybe the fine line here and these things all seem to be so subtle is that even when this happens then how do you make sure you don’t just get so fearful of him uh of what’s going on that you um that you you know that you don’t know that that you don’t just styy your entire game plan. So here is Will Hardy on that. Again, I I’m checking the audio reading looks like, so that makes me nervous. They prey on the wasted dribble, the nothing dribble, the dribble where you’re just putting it between your legs for no reason. Um, you have to be really tight and efficient. You have to play in straight lines with a lot of force. You don’t want to play in a small space against him. Like, you want to try to use as much of the court as you can. But I think Amen Thompson is in the up echelon of individual perimeter defenders in our league. And guys like him who force a lot of turnovers one-on-one on the ball. I feel like when I watch, they prey on the wasted dribble. Um you need to be very purposeful with the ball when he’s guarding you. It’s not a time um to casually change hands with the ball. Um you have to use your off arm and your body to protect the ball. Um and you also have to have enough humility to know when to get off it. Um, that being said, you also don’t want to turn the game into there’s so much fear that you never drive it when he has when he’s guarding you or we’re avoiding him so much that the game becomes unnatural. Um, but it’s it’s a great test for our young guards playing against somebody like him. And we shared with you numbers yesterday that basically Keonte hardly scored didn’t score on him on Thompson the whole time. Thompson’s just that that great at what he does. I I thought that was those that that that balance right there of like, okay, we’re not going to attack him, but we also don’t want to be scared. We’ve got to have a game plan that gets us away from him, but at the same time, we can’t just freeze the whole game plan. Was kind of a good testament to how difficult this all can be on any given night. All right, that is locked on Jazz for today. We will be with you tomorrow at Well, we will. Yes, tomorrow’s show we’re going to talk about the draft pick, the dreaded evil draft pick on tomorrow’s show. We’ll talk about that, plus all the su some of another success that you may have forgotten about in this season. That’s on tomorrow’s show. Follow and subscribe to the show so you get every single episode at Locked on Jazz, whether it’s on audio or on YouTube. 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Utah Jazz rookie Ace Bailey surprises critics with his evolving playmaking instincts—could he become a key facilitator in the NBA? Bailey, once labeled a ball hog, now demonstrates impressive passing vision, routinely making sharp reads inside 10 feet and showing a willingness to involve teammates like Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George. David Locke breaks down Bailey’s emerging assist skills with detailed game analysis, spotlighting how the coaching staff positions him for success and how his unselfish approach is transforming the team dynamic.
Key topics include Bailey’s adaptation to 0.5-second decision-making, defensive growth, and the challenge of balancing physicality with foul trouble. Insights on upcoming matchups against the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks add context to Bailey’s development. Plus, a special segment examines defensive schemes and Amin Thompson’s elite on-ball defense. Can Bailey’s instincts and adjustment propel the Utah Jazz toward a brighter future?
0:00 – Ace Bailey Passing Evolution
15:06 – Ace Bailey Highlights and Development
24:20 – Will Hardy on Ace baileyDefense & Thompson
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4 comments
I still dont understand how all these scouts where talking about him like a low effort ball hog. I think in 3 years it will be clear he was the second best player in the draft
Every scout knew that him and Harper were the only players who could do anything on rutgers. No spacing around them.
But theyarent smart enough to understand how that effected his game in college, forcing him to take tough shots.
The audio on the Will Hardy communication was very clear. Thanks David.
He's been the opposite of a selfish, mid-range ball hog. He's been really coachable, a good 3-pt guy, patient and smart in the half court, and by all accounts, a student of the game and a pleasure to be around.
This is the kind of scouting that allows Sam Presti to draft nothing but All Stars and HoFers while other GMs are trying to avoid Cody Williamses and Melvin Ajincas.