Ace Bailey Named Utah Jazz's Most Vital Player

Looking at the Utah Jazz's roster heading into the 2025-26 NBA season, it's a group that'll be looking a bit different in a few significant places.

Veterans like Collin Sexton, Jordan Clarkson, and John Collins will be out, while new high-end young pieces like Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton Jr. are in to help the needle continue pushing forward for what will be the fourth year of their rebuild process. A statement first offseason for new team president Austin Ainge, but a necessary step in the right direction.

But, when taking a step back to glance at this Jazz roster a few months out from next season, there's an interesting question to be had: who's the most important name on the roster?

It's a scenario Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley recently drew up in an intriguing hypothetical: "Who would every NBA team save if it could keep one player?" A compelling inquiry for many teams, but for the Jazz, he centered on one eye-catching name as their selection: Utah's fifth-overall pick in last month's draft, Ace Bailey.

"Few teams arrived at the 2025 draft in more desperate need of blue-chip talent than the Jazz," Buckley wrote, "That surely played a part in their willingness to gamble on Bailey, the ultimate risk-reward prospect in this class, despite his obvious hopes of heading elsewhere. It was precisely the kind of move a rebuilding organization had to make."

"Bailey has his warts as a prospect—his game is raw in most areas—but his mix of length, athleticism and shot-making seldom comes along," he continued, "If this draft class produces a scoring champion, it would be him. His upside is more interesting than anything else going in Salt Lake City."

Since beginning their rebuild three summers ago, the Jazz had been desperately coveting that next cornerstone piece to build around for the foreseeable future. It took some time to find a guy with that upside, but Bailey certainly provides that, and makes himself possibly the most important piece of this team moving forward, even without setting foot on the floor for a regular season game.

It's some high praise for the Jazz rookie, but with his strong length and athleticism, an unmatched scoring upside within his draft class, and the chance to be a true number-one scoring option at the next level, if Utah were pressed to pick only one player to build their future around–– Bailey may be the one to claim that title.