Former NBA All-Star Jeff Teague has made a stunning prediction for the 2025-26 Rookie of the Yr award, snubbing the likes of Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper in favor of Ace Bailey. Bailey made his preseason debut towards the Houston Rockets on Wednesday.
He had a stable sport, recording 25 factors, six rebounds, three assists and two steals in 31 minutes, capturing 11-for-16. Being attentive to the rookie’s standout efficiency, Jeff Teague picked him to win the Rookie of the Yr award on Thursday’s episode of the “Membership 520” podcast.
“We’ve seen our Rookie of the Yr; it’ll be him,” Teague stated. “I feel the most effective factor he did was simply transfer on from that state of affairs. He simply put his head down and hooped.” (Timestamp: 01:30)
•
![]()
Teague continued, noting how Bailey’s state of affairs with the Utah Jazz offers him the most effective probability on the award:
“He’s going to have essentially the most alternatives out of all of the rookies to get to shoot, so I’ve already bought him for Rookie of the Yr.”
In his lone season in school, Bailey performed 30 video games for Rutgers, averaging 17.6 factors, 7.2 rebounds and 1.3 assists per sport, capturing 46%.
Kevin Durant was impressed with Jeff Teague’s early Rookie of the Yr candidate after preseason exhibiting
Jeff Teague wasn’t the one one raving about Ace Bailey following his stable preseason exhibiting towards the Houston Rockets. Kevin Durant additionally had excessive reward for the No. 5 decide and expressed pleasure for his future within the league whereas chatting with the media:
“A dynamic participant,” stated Durant. “I feel he’s going to be a hell of a participant. I really like the teaching employees that he’s with. I really like that he bought drafted to Utah. I am trying ahead to seeing how he progresses. I am anticipating an enormous 12 months from him and an enormous profession from him. Tonight, he confirmed us what he can do.”
After dealing with a lot scrutiny on social media forward of the 2025 NBA draft, Ace Bailey has shortly modified the league’s notion of him with a stable efficiency. Whereas Teague’s prediction comes approach too quickly, it wouldn’t be stunning if Bailey offers the opposite rookies a run for his or her cash as he kicks off his NBA journey with the Jazz.
Edited by Sameer Khan

