Analyst compares Rutgers' Ace Bailey to Shedeur Sanders amid potential draft slide following pre-draft antics 

Rutgers star Ace Bailey was selected by the Utah Jazz with the No. 5 pick in the 2025 NBA draft on Wednesday night. However, according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony, the pick came as a complete surprise to Bailey, as he reportedly had no idea the Jazz were even interested. In fact, Utah wasn't even on his list of preferred landing spots.

Meanwhile, CBS Sports' Jared Dubin, who compared this year's top NBA prospects to recent NFL stars, and Bailey drew an interesting parallel. Dubin likened him to Cleveland Browns quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who also entered his draft cycle with high expectations but saw his stock questioned due to concerns about fit and long-term projection:

"Bailey experiencing a Sanders-like slide out of the first round entirely seems wildly unlikely given the differences between the NBA and NFL Drafts and the lack of a direct NBA comparison to the quarterback position, but the meta-narrative surrounding Bailey is eerily similar to the one we saw around Sanders a couple months ago."

Much like Sanders, Ace Bailey began the 2024/25 season on equal footing with his highly touted Rutgers teammate Dylan Harper, but things shifted along the way. According to Dubin, Bailey's draft stock slipped during the pre-draft process, largely because his vision of himself, his talent or his performance didn't quite align with how many NBA teams viewed him.

According to Dublin, there were even reports that Bailey's agent made attempts to steer him toward a team that would let him be a primary scorer. However, the teams at the top of the draft were not convinced enough that he could shoulder that role.

Dubin also noted that the overall narrative surrounding Bailey was strikingly similar to what Sanders faced just months earlier. In the case of Sanders, he ended up slipping down to the No. 144 pick in the fifth round despite many expecting him to be an early pick.

However, Ace Bailey's slip wasn't down an overly slippery slope. Despite the speculation and draft-day uncertainty, he still secured a spot near the top, landing at No. 5 in the first round of the NBA draft.

"I want to come in and be a leader as a young cat": Ace Bailey on joining Jazz

Utah might not have been Ace Bailey's top choice, but that isn't stopping him from embracing the challenge.

"I feel like once I come in, it's going to be a lot of work," Bailey said via ESPN.com. "I feel like I'm a person that likes to work out a lot. I'm going to push my teammates to be the best they can be. I want to come in and be a leader as a young cat."

Apart from Ace Bailey, the Utah Jazz also drafted Florida Gator point guard Walter Clayton Jr.