Ace Bailey Injury: Utah Jazz #5 pick faces tendonitis scare ahead of NBA debut

Leading up to the start of the 2025-26 NBA season, Ace Bailey has put together two impressive preseason performances back-to-back, scoring 20 points against the San Antonio Spurs and 25 points against the Houston Rockets.

Despite that, Bailey exited Monday's game against Dallas after just 11 minutes, leaving fans fearing the worst. While coach Will Hardy downplayed the situation after Utah's 114-101 loss, his update has sparked concern:

“He's got some tendonitis in both knees. It's nothing that we're overly concerned with. He's not going to be getting imaged or anything like that. It's just trying to take care of him. He was a little sore during his second stint.”

While it doesn't sound like Utah is overly worried about the situation, the fact that Bailey is dealing with tendonitis at just 19 years of age has left plenty of Jazz fans concerned.

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Utah is set to play its final preseason game on Thursday against the Portland Trail Blazers before the team's regular season tips off on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

While it's unclear whether Bailey will play against Portland on Thursday, the expectation is that he'll be good to go for Utah's regular season opener against the Clippers next week.

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Jazz coach Will Hardy dishes on Ace Bailey's knee injury

Heading into Monday's preseason showdown between the Utah Jazz and the Dallas Mavericks, fans were eager to see Ace Bailey battle it out with No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg.

While Ace Bailey exited the game after just 11 minutes of action, Flagg went on to record 11 points on 3-13 from the field while contributing seven rebounds, two blocks, and two steals over just 21 minutes of action.

After the loss, coach Will Hardy explained that the coaching staff noticed Bailey grabbing at his knees early in the game. Considering the No. 5 pick had been dealing with some minor soreness leading up to the game, the situation led to Jazz coaches having a discussion with him:

“He was reaching for his knees a little bit and moving a little bit gingerly, and so then the conversation happens, and one of Ace’s best qualities is he’s very honest, so we just felt like tonight it was best to pull him and get some treatment.”

While Ace Bailey wound up playing just 11 minutes, Utah had Lauri Markkanen and Kyle Filipowski return to action for Monday's game, which is a promising sign for Utah fans heading into the start of the season.

Edited by Evan Bell