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Who Do You Prefer Among Ace Bailey, Tre Johnson & V.J. Edgecombe? (Poll)

Which player do you prefer for the Jazz?

  • Ace Bailey

    Votes: 28 26.4%

  • Tre Johnson

    Votes: 45 42.5%

  • V.J. Edgecombe

    Votes: 21 19.8%

  • I don't have a strong preference.

    Votes: 12 11.3%
  • Total voters
    106
I think Ace is the proverbial Paul George of this draft. I think he's the guy if he's there. Remember, PG was a 20 y.o. soph entering the league, so Ace is a full year younger. If Tre Johnson falls to #5, then he's fine too, and the Jazz can aim for Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer or Cenac next year.

Draft watchers seem to think that VJ Edgecombe is the least likely to slip to #5. Choosing between Ace and Tre is a 1st-world problem.
 
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After giving it more thought, I kinda think PHI is the ideal situation for Ace. It will force him to be a role player and build out the parts of his game besides mid range shot making. Come to think of it, there’s actually a lot of good wings that started as role player first, then became a star later. Maybe it’s just the case that wings rarely come in ready to play a larger role, but I’m starting to feel like this is exactly what he needs and what he doesn’t need is to have complete freedom to do whatever he wants. Could result in a Kuminga situation, but the unlimited freedom could also reinforce his bad habits. I’d rather have him in a locker room with Embiid, PG, and Maxey than having the freedom he would have here. Eventually he can take over, but he needs those base role player skills first.

On the flip side, I think Utah is a great situation for VJ….or at least it’s a great situation to explore his star potential. He’s going to be a great role player at least. He has those traits locked down. But if he were in the winning situation that might pigeonhole him early. If there’s any chance of VJ becoming a star, he needs reps and reps and more reps in initiator situations. I’m not really worried about VJ picking up the bad habits even if he’s focused on developing out his offense first.

TL/DR: Ace needs less freedom to become a star, VJ needs more.
 
KqWIN said:
After giving it more thought, I kinda think PHI is the ideal situation for Ace. It will force him to be a role player and build out the parts of his game besides mid range shot making. Come to think of it, there’s actually a lot of good wings that started as role player first, then became a star later. Maybe it’s just the case that wings rarely come in ready to play a larger role, but I’m starting to feel like this is exactly what he needs and what he doesn’t need is to have complete freedom to do whatever he wants. Could result in a Kuminga situation, but the unlimited freedom could also reinforce his bad habits. I’d rather have him in a locker room with Embiid, PG, and Maxey than having the freedom he would have here. Eventually he can take over, but he needs those base role player skills first.

On the flip side, I think Utah is a great situation for VJ….or at least it’s a great situation to explore his star potential. He’s going to be a great role player at least. He has those traits locked down. But if he were in the winning situation that might pigeonhole him early. If there’s any chance of VJ becoming a star, he needs reps and reps and more reps in initiator situations. I’m not really worried about VJ picking up the bad habits even if he’s focused on developing out his offense first.

TL/DR: Ace needs less freedom to become a star, VJ needs more.
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Also, PG is one of his heroes and he understands shot distribution and distributing.

I think Tre is third in preference for me.
 
I think Tre can unlock some potential just by shooting more 3’s. I want to see him be in the top 10-15 guys in 3 point volume. He shot a lot of mid range jumpers, but I think he’ll have an easier time (and is likely more willing) than Ace extending out to 3.

I’ve had Ace ahead of Tre for awhile, but Tre’s offense just looks far superior to Ace’s offense.
 
Having endured the last seasons of the Jazz I really like Edgecombe: his defense is superb and he is much better than Tre or Ace at understanding the game on both ends and anticipating the action. He is also a much better and willing passer. But at the end of the day he is a SF who desperately needs 2+ inches of height to be effective in the NBA. VJ is a tweener who must play the guard but simply does not have the handle to do that. If he magically improves both the handle and his half-court game he would be by far the best player out of those three but the chances are pretty low: all his basketball life VJ leaned heavily on the pure athleticism and never developed the basic guard skills, so to be successful he needs to completely reinvent who he is as a player.

Ace and Tre both have clear positions and the physical tools to play them. Tre is obviously more skilled and a better (although unwilling) passer. I think he could develop his inside game in time. Both of them have enough size on defense to be OK. The deciding factor to me is that Tre is simply smarter at basketball and that would matter long-term. My order of preference would be Tre-Ace-Edgecombe.

Also, if we draft either Tre or VJ both of them could benefit tremendously from working with Clarkson and learning how to be effective and creative in attacking the basket.
 
Been listening to the locked on Hornets guys, they are great. They seem to think VJ is both the right pick if he’s there at 4 and the expected pick based on their new FO. Things always change, but just based on that it appears that we will get the leftover of Ace/Tre or have to trade up to #3 for VJ.
 
KqWIN said:
Been listening to the locked on Hornets guys, they are great. They seem to think VJ is both the right pick if he’s there at 4 and the expected pick based on their new FO. Things always change, but just based on that it appears that we will get the leftover of Ace/Tre or have to trade up to #3 for VJ.
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The host is very handsome.. and yes I’m old enough to remember the original Blue’s Clues.. lol..
 
KqWIN said:
Been listening to the locked on Hornets guys, they are great. They seem to think VJ is both the right pick if he’s there at 4 and the expected pick based on their new FO. Things always change, but just based on that it appears that we will get the leftover of Ace/Tre or have to trade up to #3 for VJ.
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Awesome. I hope you are right
 
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