Jazz Declining Collier’s Option, Exercising Bailey’s

Bailey, a 6’9″ small forward, was selected fifth overall in last year’s draft. Collier, a 6’4″ point guard, was the 29th pick in 2024.

Picking up Bailey’s option was pretty straightforward — he’ll now earn a little under $10MM in 2027/28. The former Rutgers wing averaged 13.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 0.7 blocks on .443/.344/.750 shooting in 27.6 minutes per game across 72 appearances (61 starts) as a rookie last season.

Through six games this season (30.8 MPG), Bailey has averaged 13.3 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 2.2 APG and 1.8 BPG on .500/.292/.750 shooting. The 20-year-old has started five of his six appearances amid frontcourt injuries to Jusuf Nurkic and Jaren Jackson Jr.

The decision to decline Collier’s $5MM option for next season is pretty surprising. While the 22-year-old has had some clear limitations to this point in his career — he has only made 69 of his 277 (24.9%) three-point attempts and just 69.6% of his free throws — he has also averaged 9.4 assists per 36 minutes, can draw fouls, and finish in the paint.

In 59 games last season, Collier averaged 11.7 PPG, 7.2 APG (2.5 turnovers), 2.5 RPG and 1.1 SPG in 25.7 MPG. He shot 49.5% from the field, including knocking down 54.9% of his two-point tries.

For what it’s worth, several all-in-one advanced metrics were exceptionally low on Collier’s performance in 2025/26 despite his solid-looking counting stats. A major factor in that is his on/off numbers were pretty abysmal — the Jazz were minus-13.2 per 100 possessions when he was on the court, compared to minus-4.8 when he wasn’t playing.

Utah’s offensive and defensive ratings were both significantly worse with Collier in the game last season. That has carried over to 2026/27 as well, though it’s obviously a small sample size (six games) and the Jazz have gotten off to a slow start (they’re currently 1-5).

Collier will be headed to unrestricted free agency this summer, and whichever team he ends the 2026/27 campaign with will not be able to offer him a starting salary that exceeds his declined option.

According to Shreyas Laddha of The Salt Lake Tribune (Twitter link), Collier has taken the news well. The Jazz will continue to evaluate the former USC guard throughout his third year in the league, Laddha adds.

The Jazz will have until November 1, 2027 to determine whether or not they want to exercise Bailey’s fourth-year option.