Bailey says he's 'blessed' to be joining Jazz

Ace Bailey indicated Sunday that helium ne'er thought astir holding retired oregon forcing a commercialized aft the Utah Jazz drafted him No. 5 overall.

Bailey reported to Utah aft helium was criticized for his attack to the pre-draft process, during which helium refused to enactment retired for teams funny successful him. When asked during his introductory quality league whether helium considered not coming to Salt Lake City, helium lone expressed enthusiasm for being with the Jazz.

"Just blessed to beryllium successful the presumption I am," Bailey said.

Before the draft, Bailey canceled a scheduled workout with the Philadelphia 76ers and declined invitations from the Charlotte Hornets and Jazz to enactment retired for them. Utah was not among his preferred destinations, a root told ESPN's Jonathan Givony successful the lead-up to the draft.

That didn't halt the Jazz from utilizing their lottery prime connected him anyway. Utah is betting the 18-year-old volition unlock his imaginable and blossom into a prolific scorer.

Joining Bailey successful Utah are No. 18 prime Walter Clayton Jr. and No. 53 prime John Tonje, 2 different high-level scorers.

"This is simply a imagination script for us," Jazz president of hoops operations Austin Ainge said. "These are guys we targeted earlier the draught with precocious imaginable and precocious character, and we couldn't beryllium much excited."

Ainge believes each 3 rookies are multi-dimensional players who tin marque an interaction connected defense.

"These guys tin play connected some ends," Ainge said. "We're looking for the champion operation of each the skills we can. But, yeah, these guys tin enactment the shot successful the hole."

Mock drafts had Bailey arsenic a statement top-three prime earlier helium slid to the Jazz. The 6-foot-8 guardant has a versatile violative game. At Rutgers, Bailey showed helium tin sprout disconnected the dribble, sound down step-back jumpers and onslaught the paint.

He averaged 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds successful his lone play with the Scarlet Knights. Bailey complemented his wrong crippled by stretching defenses with his range, shooting 34.6% from beyond the arc.

"I got large energy," Bailey said. "I tin bash everything from rebounding to defence to scoring to passing. So I tin accidental I tin bring it a batch successful antithetic ways."

Still, concerns astir his scoring efficiency, ballhandling, passing, antiaircraft strength and maturity contributed to Bailey falling retired of the apical three. He's anxious to beryllium the Jazz made the close choice.

"I spot my work," Bailey said. "I (put in) countless hours successful the gym with everything that I do. So I spot it. Everybody makes mistakes. God didn't enactment america present to beryllium perfect. So I conscionable spot myself and conscionable spot my process."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.