Gordon Monson: Austin Ainge says the Jazz had a ‘dream scenario’ in the NBA Draft. I need to know what’s next.

Dear Austin,

What’s this … Ace Bailey? Wow. Ace Freaking Bailey?

No, you did not. Yeah, you did.

I’m impressed.

You took the same Ace Bailey who supposedly didn’t want to play in Utah. Who preferred, it was said, to play back east somewhere. Who had become pretty much as mysterious as any player in the draft, based on his refusal in the run-up to work out for NBA teams, including the Jazz.

And afterward, you didn’t just say he is excited and you are excited, you called your draft night a “dream scenario.” You said one of the things that caught your attention about Ace was “his joy and energy for the game.” Not just that, but you called him a “breath of fresh air in the gym.”

Good on you, Austin. Swimming against the current like that. Grading your own road. Leaving your mark. Damn the hints of young player entitlement, full speed ahead.

This is a positive sign. A sign of either desperation or bravado. A sign that you are unafraid and fully willing to get dramatic. The Jazz need drama. You need to shake it up.

After you guys swatted fear and timidity away, going ahead and selecting the presumptuous 18-year-old with that fifth overall pick, he said to local reporters all the right things — most of the right things — stuff like: “It’s time to get to work. … It was very emotional. … I’ve just been focusing on basketball. … I’m a leader. … I’m a person who’s going to push everyone to be the best they can be. … I can improve on everything. I’m young.”

He finished with, “I ain’t never been to Utah.”

Some of his answers to national media were … what’s the word? … vague. Asked about getting picked by the Jazz, he said, something along the lines of, “You control what you can control.”

He couldn’t control what you did, Austin. He wasn’t in position to do that.

And then, you traded up for the 18th pick, Walter Clayton Jr., a speedy, tough-minded, needed shooter. You gave up this year’s 21st pick and two second-round picks in the next decade for the exciting guard. Whew. Like everybody else, I’m pondering and processing all this.

“[I’ll bring] some offensive versatility,” the Florida guard said. “They like my skillset.”

Apparently, you do: “He’s tough, smart, an amazing shooter, athletic and mature,” was the way you put it.

OK, OK, OK, Austin. Let’s lean forward here. This is not one of those snarky open letters that makes a lot of declarative statements and accusations dressed out as two-faced questions. It’s an earnest bit of communication, a sincere inquiry, a search for complete and comprehensive understanding.

Just wondering, as I write here, what the plan is for the Jazz now. Not now, as in what you aim to do with those remaining second-round picks immediately at hand. And not now, as in the extended blueprint for three or four or five years out, after another thousand first-round picks of the future are spent, the ones the Jazz got from trading away All-Stars and talented rotational guys for some foggy notion of what the seasons ahead might look like. (That only sounded accusatory, it wasn’t intended to be.) I mean right now, before the 2025-26 season begins.

What’s the greater agenda today, tomorrow and the day after that? What’s the path forward? You said the Jazz under your new leadership are done with the tanking. You said the Jazz are done with the trying to lose. You did not say the Jazz are done with the losing.

You likely are not. You know it. I know it. We all know it. Unless you pull off more significant moves in the relative short term, moves with meaning.

You took Bailey with your first pick, a 6-9 forward who’s as good an athlete as any of them, a dude who can create his own shots, who averaged 17.6 points and 7.2 rebounds in his freshman year at Rutgers, who can shoot it — likely better, with some pro coaching, than he did in college — and has a 34.5-inch vertical. He can flush the rock like a madman and, if he dials in on it, he can play some defense, too.

You said Wednesday night you were intrigued with his shot-making, his defense and his rebounding.

Whether Bailey knows it yet or not, this is a fantastic situation for him, right? A chance for him to flourish. You and Will Hardy have hammered through this. You’re going to let the rook do things other teams would not have allowed. Not turning him loose, all willy-nilly, but truth is, Lauri Markkanen needs help — at both ends of the floor. Bailey has the talent to pitch in quickly, if he can learn what it takes to be a pro.

Add in Clayton, and faint elements of promise echo.

Still, that’s nowhere near enough to ascend from the worst record in the NBA, intentional or otherwise, last time around to something far more respectable this next time.

How did you say it? “It’s a process with young guys.”

You know from your 17 years in Boston that it’s a most difficult task for all but the most extraordinary of rookies to contribute in major ways — for obvious reasons, foremost among them it being only human having to get acclimated to a whole new level of competition. The speed, the size, the strength, the savvy of the players on opposing teams can be overwhelming.

Can Bailey hack his way through to being a moderate exception to that? I dunno, the kid doesn’t turn 19 until August. Clayton is 22.

Picking these two to build for the future seems like a sound idea, but one the Jazz have been fiddling-and-faddling with for three hapless years now, heading toward a fourth. They’ve swung and missed with previous draft picks. I say “they” because you had nothing to do with that, having been hired on just a month or so ago. What, then, can be done to hurry this thing up, to turn hapless into happy? Even without the tanking, are your Jazz hurtling toward another lottery pick next year, a more distant shot at the top selection, a chance to get AJ Dybantsa?

Patience and player development have been the p-words meant to placate Jazz fans since the last time they made another p-word, the playoffs, in 2022. But, man, that’s worn everybody around here a bit thin. It was a long time ago by Jazz standards. The Delta Center going dark in April is not a streak anybody wants to see elongated.

Again, that’s not your fault. Nobody’s blaming you for what you inherited.

But what are your fresh eyes seeing? What new ideas do you have? What can be done to transform the Jazz into winners again?

Are you willing to trade away assets of the future and current Jazz players, even popular and productive ones, for better bodies and minds that can bump the team ahead, if not into contention, at least beyond where they are now? Are you afraid that doing so will edge the Jazz back to where they were a fistful of years ago — in a kind of No Man’s Land, where and when they were good enough to make the playoffs, but never great enough to do much more than that? Or can you provide authentic evidence of advancement — beyond these draft picks — intentions that can be sustained through improvement straight to excellence, not allowing good or better to block the road to great or best?

Wondering, still, how aggressive you’ll be from this juncture on. How prepared you’ll be to jump when what you’ve planned for becomes attainable, piece by piece, player by player.

I’m curious, and so are a lot of my friends, a million Jazz fans. It’s hard, I know. Will you depend on next year’s draft, the draft after that, the draft after that? Or will you force fast moves now? I mean, right now, before and into the 2025-26 season?

You had a nice night on Wednesday, seemed to, anyway. Nothing crazy happened, but progress was made. Two promising rookies are in the fold. You know like I know that promise alone will not get the job done.

More is required.

“We believe in stacking good decisions,” you said. “Then, you look up and you have a lot of good players.”

Are you stacking and looking up?

A lot of Jazz fans want to know, want to watch and witness it happen. Can you make it happen, Austin?

Before the snark kicks in?