Utah Jazz rookie Ace Bailey wasted no time making an impression in his NBA preseason debut, scoring his first bucket in style against the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft led all scorers with 25 points on an efficient 68.8% shooting from the field, 40% from three, and a perfect 100% from the free-throw line. Bailey also added six rebounds, three assists, and two steals in 31 minutes, showcasing exactly why the Jazz made him their top selection this summer.
Ace Bailey CONNECTS on the pull-up jumper for his first preseason bucket 🪣
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 9, 2025
Although the Jazz fell 140-127 to the Rockets in the high-scoring affair, Bailey’s debut was the major headline. From the moment he hit his first mid-range jumper in the opening quarter, it was clear the 19-year-old was comfortable on an NBA floor. He mixed a combination of pull-up jumpers, perimeter shooting, and confident drives to the rim, giving fans a glimpse of his versatile offensive arsenal.
“I thought offensively, I loved that it was a variety,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said postgame. “That’s how we want him to operate. We don’t want him to only be in one space offensively; we want to utilize his full skill set.”
Bailey wasn’t alone in putting on a show for Utah. Brice Sensabaugh dropped 24 points while hitting six three-pointers, Keyonte George tallied 16 points and nine assists, Taylor Hendricks chipped in with 15 points, and Jusuf Nurkić filled the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. Still, the spotlight firmly belonged to Bailey, who looked every bit the future franchise cornerstone Utah envisioned.
From knocking down back-to-back threes in the third quarter to hitting a smooth fadeaway jumper after an offensive rebound in the fourth, Bailey’s debut was a statement of arrival. The biggest surprise for me was that he tried to be on the tail of Kevin Durant throughout the game, and for a rookie to take on one of the greatest players in the NBA, it takes courage. It might just be preseason, but if Wednesday night was any indication, the Jazz may have landed their next star in Ace Bailey.
