Jazz decline Isaiah Collier option, pick up Ace Bailey's

Monday was the deadline for rookie-scale options, and Utah made one easy call and one that raised some eyebrows.

ClutchPoints

@ClutchPoints

The Jazz will decline the 2027-28 team option on Isaiah Collier, per @MikeAScotto. He'll become an unrestricted free agent.

The surprising part is the price. A $4.99 million option on a guard who's still on his rookie deal is about as cheap as an NBA contract gets. Over 3 seasons Collier has averaged 9.9 points, 6.6 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals a game, which is real production for that money. That's why the move caught people off guard.

Ben Anderson

@BensHoops

This is a little surprising since it’s a relatively low cost contract on a young player, but it’s been a rough year three for Collier.

Michael Scotto

@MikeAScotto

The Utah Jazz will decline their team option on Isaiah Collier worth $4.99 million for the 2027-28 season, sources told @hoopshype. Collier has averaged 9.9 points, 6.6 assists, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.0 steals in three seasons. He’ll be a coveted unrestricted free agent. t.co/NDguwgdJVo

That's the whole thing in 1 tweet: cheap and young usually means you keep him, but year 3 has gone badly enough that Utah would rather walk away. Here's the part that matters. Declining the option doesn't cut Collier. He plays out this season on his current deal. It just means the Jazz won't have him under team control past it, and he hits the open market with no restricted free agency for Utah to match offers through.

The other half of the news went the opposite way, and a second source confirmed both moves.

Shreyas Laddha

@shre98

A source confirms that the Jazz will pick up the rookie scale team option on Ace Bailey and decline the option for Isaiah Collier. Collier becomes an unrestricted free agent after this year .

Bailey's option was never in doubt. Utah took him 5th overall in the 2025 draft, and exercising his $9.98 million option for 2027-28 keeps him locked in through that season. He's a centerpiece of the rebuild, and the Jazz are treating him like it. Put the 2 decisions next to each other and you can see who Utah is building around and who's still auditioning.

So now Collier has the rest of the season to show something, either to Utah or to the other 29 teams. A point guard who has averaged 6.6 assists a game for his career isn't going to have trouble finding a market next summer, especially as an unrestricted guy. If he turns this season around, the Jazz could end up paying a lot more than $4.99 million to keep him, or watching him leave for nothing. That's the gamble Utah just made.