What grades/reception did the Utah Jazz receive for their selections of Ace Bailey and Walter Clayton?

How did the Utah Jazz do?

The first round of the 2025 NBA draft was Wednesday night and the Jazz made two selections:

• Ace Bailey with the No. 5 pick.

• Walker Clayton with the No. 18 pick.

The Jazz are three years (going on four) into a teardown-turned-rebuild and in desperate need of young players with star potential.

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Did they find them in Bailey and/or Clayton?

Here are what national pundits thoughts about the Jazz’s first round picks.

ESPN

Jonathan Givony might be the preeminent name in NBA draft coverage right now and Givony had nothing but good things to say about the Jazz’s selection of Bailey at No. 5.

That pick — listed as one of the biggest surprises of the first round by Givony — caught many off guard after Bailey’s representation had prevented him from working out for teams in an attempt to get Bailey to a specific destination, reported to be either Washington or Brooklyn.

The Jazz nonetheless selected Bailey, who was considered a top 3 overall prospect in the draft.

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“Bailey declined multiple invite requests to visit and workout privately with Utah throughout the predraft process, as well as the Philadelphia 76ers at No. 3 and the Charlotte Hornets at No. 4, but the Jazz felt they knew enough about his game and profile to feel comfortable drafting him regardless,” Givony wrote. “New president of basketball operations Austin Ainge interviewed Bailey at the NBA draft combine as a member of the Boston Celtics’ front office, and the rest of the Jazz brass also interviewed him separately. Ainge scouted him multiple times throughout the season at Rutgers.”

When it comes to Bailey as a prospect, Givony noted that he has “All-Star potential,” something the Jazz seriously needed on their roster.

“The Jazz get an explosive wing with All-Star potential with exceptional shot-making prowess and scoring instincts who brings insatiable aggressiveness and a strong defensive motor,” Givony wrote.

The Ringer

Bailey was the primary focus when people reviewed the Jazz’s first round and for good reason. The former Rutgers star is viewed as having legitimate star potential on the wing and many believed Utah was the perfect landing spot.

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That includes Dann Chau, who wrote: “Honestly, as far as teams with infrastructure, commitment, and wide-open spaces go, Utah’s probably an ideal landing spot, whether Bailey realizes it or not. A win for both parties. (I love a red herring.)”

Chau, like Givony, believes Bailey has the potential to the be star Utah has been looking for for awhile now, citing Utah’s lack of excellence on the wing since Gordon Hayward left for Boston.

“The Jazz have been searching for a true star wing since Gordon Hayward’s departure damn near a decade ago,” Chau wrote. “Bailey might be the most talented player they’ve drafted in more than a decade, a long-levered contested-shot magician who has the frame and the requisite athleticism to become the kind of modern two-way star the team has hoped for years to find.”

The Athletic

John Hollinger and Sam Vecenie looked into both of Utah’s draft picks and on the whole both picks were praised, although Bailey’s boom or bust potential was a concern.

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Of Bailey, Vecenie noted: “The ceiling for Bailey is the second-best player in this class if he improves his areas of need. Particularly, he needs to improve his flexibility and ability to play with bend while also getting stronger. That would allow him to access more power and use his gifts across the court in a more functional manner. Once he does that, Bailey would be able to start working on improving his gathers and ball pickups around the rim on his drives to improve his finishing, which would also hopefully get defenders more off-balance and give him more options.

“That would improve his shooting percentages, which again, even on pull-ups this year, were markedly low. Then, on defense, it would allow him to play the leverage game better. Hopefully, better engagement on that end would follow, too, but he showed enough upside on that end to become a player. If all of this happens, there’s serious All-Star upside. Anyone who says that doesn’t exist is flat-out wrong. There is a chance Bailey could morph into a playmaker and star-level difference-maker on the wing.”

Hollinger was noticeably less excited about the pick though.

“I wasn’t that excited about Bailey, but I’m more pessimistic than most,” he wrote. “The other interesting part will be how he fits in a Jazz frontcourt that already has Lauri Markkanen, John Collins and Walker Kessler.”

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As for Clayton, Vecenie praised the Florida guard as a player he’s “long-loved,” with the potential to be a “high-end scorer off the bench in the NBA.”

“He’s an underrated athlete in terms of explosiveness and balance. He competes on defense and is strong, even if his size will create limitations. … There is upside beyond that if he proves capable of improving his ball-screen reads and becoming an even better passer. It’s hard to find scoring guards with this kind of pull-up gravity.”

Hollinger believes that Clayton will work best in the NBA as a secondary ball handler, seeing him as more of a combo guard than a true point guard.

“Utah has a couple of other young guards on the roster, but they’ve already been given chances and haven’t shown much,” he worte. “Clayton profiles as a combo guard whose long-distance game works best with other ballhandlers around him, so we’ll see what else the Jazz can add to the backcourt.”

NBC Sports

Kurt Helin handed out an actual grade for the Jazz’s first round — a B.

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He was high on Bailey because of his star potential.

“The Jazz need talent,“ Helin wrote. ”Bailey has the second-highest ceiling of any player in this draft, but this feels like a boom or bust pick — and good on the Jazz for taking that swing. At this point in their team building, the Jazz should take big swings. Bailey is a prototypical modern NBA wing: he has great size, is a freak athlete, has a high motor, can create his own shot, can shoot the 3 (36.7% last season), and is a tough shot-maker. The problem is that he made tough shots because of his questionable shot selection, something Utah needs to work on. The Jazz have a very good player development staff, if they can mold Bailey, this swing could be a home run.”

Clayton was less of a win for the Jazz, in Helin estimation.

“Clayton was a clutch player for the national champion Florida. He is an impressive catch-and-shoot guy, there’s a lot to like (but enough to trade up a few spots for him?). He’s also got serious defensive questions. But he should move into the Jazz’s guard rotation and could be a quality backup for them (and maybe more eventually).”

CBS Sports

Arguably no draft expert was higher on the Jazz’s first round selection than Adam Finkelstein, who gave the Jazz an A grade for Bailey and an A- grade for Clayton.

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Bailey, he wrote, may have the highest upside of any player in the draft.

“His upside is significant,“ Finkelstein wrote. ”He didn’t work out for them but Utah was not going to get bullied by Bailey’s representation. They took the best prospect on the board. I believe he’s a top three prospect in the draft. He’s a jumbo wing, high-level athlete and tough shot-maker. If everything clicks, he could have the highest upside in the draft. Ace Bailey is going to have an opportunity to have an immediate impact. I think in the long run this can work out very, very well for the Jazz.”

As for Clayton, Finkelstein was almost as high on high as he was on Bailey, praising Clayton’s shooting ability above all else.

“He is an elite shooter. When you’re talking about perimeter role players in the NBA, that’s the most important criteria. He is one of the very best shooters in this draft and has the versatility to play both on and off the ball. He has the body type to defend and the physical strength to be a more competitive defender in the NBA than what we saw for most of his college career.”

Yahoo Sports

Kevin O’Connor may have been the harshest analyst out there when it came to the draft and he didn’t take it easy on the Jazz, handing out a B grade for the team’s selection of Bailey.

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His biggest concerns? That Bailey is still very raw and inconsistent. But if the Jazz are able to figure that out, the pick could be a good one.

“There’s a reason why he fell to No. 5, but this is a huge upside swing for the Jazz,” O’Connor wrote. “Bailey is a ridiculous shot-making machine, capable of splashing contested jumpers from every spot on the floor and with the swagger of a throwback bucket-getter. He had 39 points against Indiana, 37 against Northwestern, and 30 against Penn State, showing an ability to have masterful performances in which he can’t be stopped. But his raw edges as a shot creator and defender need sanding down to turn him into a full-on star.”

O’Connor loved the Jazz’s selection of Clayton, though, giving the pick an A+ grade. He even went so far as to compare Clayton to Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry.

“Along with Ace Bailey, the addition of Clayton makes the Jazz look like the funnest League Pass team next season,” O’Connor wrote. “Clayton is clutch and looked like Steph Curry at times. He’s also a culture creator. I’m very intrigued with what the Ainges are doing in Utah’s front office. Clayton is a fearless shooter with the versatility to take any shot at any moment, as we saw with him fueling the Gators to a national championship.”

Bleacher Report

Like many others, Zach Buckley had high praise for the Jazz’s pick of Bailey. He gave the selection a grade of A-, noted Bailey’s high ceiling as a prospect.

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“Utah bet big on his talent and sky-high upside anyway,” he wrote. “… It’s a smart move for a team that has made plenty of picks in recent drafts and still hasn’t found an obvious building block. Bailey isn’t guaranteed to get there, but his potential is far more obvious than you’d see with, say, Keyonte George, Isaiah Collier or Taylor Hendricks.

“… Bailey’s ceiling is arguably as high as that of any prospect in this class not named Cooper Flagg. For the Bailey believers, he’s a star-big-wing-in-the-making. He’ll drop some wow dribble moves (particularly for a 6′8″, 18-year-old) and finish with some head-shaking tough-shot makes. If you’re in the glass-overflowing camp of optimists, you might even envision a scoring title in his future.”

Buckley did note that Bailey isn’t a sure thing and that he may never actually reach his full potential, but the Jazz took a swing that they needed to.

Buckley was not a fan of the selection of Clayton, however, giving it a C+ grade.

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His biggest issues with Clayton were:

• Other players available at the time he was selected.

• The type of player Clayton profiles to be.

“I’m not sure I would have taken him with Kasparas Jakucionis and Jase Richardson both still on the board, but this isn’t some massive reach,” Buckley wrote.

He later added: “Clayton was the biggest catalyst behind Florida’s national championship run, which highlighted his shot-making and unwavering self-belief. He has one of the richest shooting menus in this class. He’s almost equally adept shooting off the catch or on the move, and he’s a skilled finisher despite not having great size or explosion.

“With all of that said, he’s still essentially a 6′3″ scoring guard, and NBA seemingly keeps moving away from that archetype. Maybe his moxie will allow him to be an exception, but with serious deficiencies as both a defender and a distributor, all of the pressure is on his shot-making to translate.”