Sources – Ace Bailey’s reps told team in top five not to pick him

NEW YORK — Leading up to the NBA draft, Ace Bailey‘s representatives informed a team drafting inside the top five that they didn’t want that team to select the Rutgers wing and that he wouldn’t report if it did, sources told ESPN on Thursday.

Bailey, whose predraft strategy had been one of the biggest storylines entering this year’s draft, wound up being taken — in a surprise — with the No. 5 pick by the Utah Jazz, a team Bailey didn’t work out for and one of which the No. 3 prospect on ESPN’s top 100 list said he wasn’t even sure was interested in him.

“I can control what I can control,” Bailey said, when asked Wednesday night after being drafted what he’d say to people who didn’t believe he was happy winding up with the Jazz. “They feel how they feel.

“But my team and me, me focusing on basketball and them doing what they’re doing, so it happens.”

For his part, Omar Cooper, Bailey’s agent, pushed back on the notion that anything they did during the process was outside of the normal course of business.

“Every NBA team watched him work out in Chicago,” Cooper told ESPN. “He did 18 interviews. Everyone got his medical. They watched him run and jump. They got his measurements.

“No one said anything when Davion Mitchell canceled a workout with the Toronto Raptors. No one criticized Evan Mobley when he didn’t work out for Cleveland, and they drafted him anyway.

“There is nothing uncommon about how Ace Bailey’s predraft process was handled.”

Cooper declined to address questions about the Jazz or Bailey’s future with the franchise.

The way Bailey, a projected top-three pick for much of the season, and his team managed the draft process indicated to rival teams that they had a preferred destination in mind — with, for many, that destination being the Washington Wizards with the No. 6 pick.

Washington had landed Alex Sarr with the No. 2 pick last year after he chose not to work out for the team with the first selection, the Atlanta Hawks. The Wizards also had the kind of roster, with an open hole on the wing, for a player with Bailey’s skill set to step into.

But entering the draft, no team had rival teams guessing more than Utah, with its plans under new president of basketball operations Austin Ainge being kept firmly under wraps.

It turned out those plans were to draft Bailey, giving Utah — which had the league’s worst record but wasn’t one of the four teams to have their pingpong ball selected in last month’s NBA draft lottery, sliding the Jazz all the way down to fifth — a chance at a talent it wouldn’t have been expected to be able to get with the fifth pick for most of the season.

“He’s great,” Ainge told reporters of Bailey in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night after drafting Bailey and Florida guard Walter Clayton Jr. “We were able to speak with him. He was super excited. We’re super excited. We’re expecting a very bright future.

“His scoring gets a lot of attention, [and] deservedly so. He’s very skilled for his size. But watching a lot of film on him, I was impressed with his defensive effort and particularly his rebounding. Lot of weakside block shots, and his joy and energy for the game.

“We do a lot of background calls and work on guys, and everyone loves being around Ace.”

Jonathan Givony is an NBA draft expert and the founder and co-owner of DraftExpress.com, a private scouting and analytics service used by NBA, NCAA and international teams.