Highlighting Ace Bailey's Strengths and Weaknesses Ahead of NBA Draft

Rutgers finished the season with a losing record despite having two projected top five picks on their team.

One of those projected top picks goes by the name of Ace Bailey. The 6-foot-9 forward played 30 games this season and averaged 33 minutes per game. His season averages are 17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.3 blocks and one steal per game while shooting 46% from the field, 69.2% from the free-throw line, 51.1% from inside the arc and 34.6% from behind the arc.

Let’s dive into the strengths and areas of improvement for Bailey.

Strengths

The clear most NBA ready skill for Bailey is his mid-range shooting. The 6-foot-9 forward has an argument to be made as the top pure mid-range shooter in this year’s draft. He has a lethal pull-up jumper from inside the arc and is comfortable shooting over shot contests due to his positional size. Bailey has a high and fast release which allows him to get his shot off effortlessly.

He has unreal confidence to the point where he believes every shot is going in. The touch he possesses allows him to make jumpers from just about any angle.

Bailey is a very good 3-point shooter and he has a ton of potential as a scorer, especially off the ball. He has drawn a lot of comparisons to Michael Porter Jr due to their positional size, how well they move without the ball and how lethal of shooters they are.

The former Rutgers forward has never seen a shot attempt that he’s not comfortable with. He has the ability to take over games with his scoring ability and shot versatility which is what gives him such a high ceiling.

Although he has some issues as a defender due to his lack of concentration and lack of defensive fundamentals, he has shown some positive signs on that end of the floor.

Bailey is a very good rebounding forward which could allow him to play minutes at the power forward position once he adds a little more strength and weight to his frame. There have been positive flashes of him being a good secondary rim protector and he’s pretty switchable. There’s certainly 3-and-D potential for the talented forward; he just has to work on a couple areas before he gets there.

Areas Of Improvement

The biggest area of improvement for Bailey is his overall decision-making on the offensive end when it comes to passing and shot selection.

This past season for Rutgers he averaged a negative assist to turnover ratio with nearly double the amount of turnovers as assists. He is a bit tunnel visioned and tends to hunt his own shot rather than move the ball around. His offense in general could use more structure and be a bit more fundamentally sound as his shot diet isn’t ideal for someone at 6-foot-9 in shoes.

Another area of improvement for Bailey is improving his shaky handle. He struggles to create separation from defenders off the bounce which is oftentimes why he has to settle for a difficult jumper.

The projected top five pick struggles to pressure the rim. He has a very high shot volume but a very low free-throw rate. The stars in today’s NBA excel at getting to the charity stripe so it will be important for Bailey to get more free-throw attempts in his NBA career.