Two Tennessee basketball players, Chaz Lanier and Jahmai Mashack, were selected in the second round of the 2025 NBA Draft this week. Tennessee has now had a player taken in six straight NBA Drafts under Rick Barnes. That streak will almost certainly reach seven seven next June when the Vols’ Nate Ament begins his professional career.
The highest rated signee in Tennessee basketball history, Ament was a five-star recruit and the No. 4 player in the 2025 recruiting cycle according to the 247sports composite rankings.
A 6-foot-10 wing with a guard’s skillset, Ament has the potential that NBA teams dream of. His ability to shoot off the catch and off the dribble combined with his size and length make him a likely lottery pick in a year.
With the 2025 NBA Draft in the rearview, sites have done their inaugural mock drafts for the 2026 NBA Draft. See where Ament landed in those mock drafts here.
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ESPN
- Pick: No. 4
- Team: Charlotte Hornets
- What they said about Ament: “A late bloomer, Ament has grown significantly in the past year, filling out his frame at 6-11. He’s a tremendous shotmaker; he has improved his passing and defensive versatility; and his ability to get a shot off almost at will gives him perhaps the highest upside of any prospect in this class. He’ll be a focal point at Tennessee, allowing NBA teams to evaluate whether he can emerge as a consistently efficient, winning player in a challenging SEC.”
CBS Sports
- Pick: No. 4
- Team: Utah Jazz
- What they said about Ament: “Ament is a late-blooming, skilled big forward who now measures above 6-10, has incredibly soft natural touch and is just beginning to tap into his upside. He showed extreme growth throughout the course of his last year in high school, going from a player who barely got minutes on the USA Basketball U18 team to one who became one of the most undeniably gifted in the class.His hands are as soft as his natural touch. He’s a versatile scoring threat with the high release to score over top of smaller defenders, graceful fluidity and tremendous dexterity around the paint. He still needs to build up his body and continue to get more assertive, but his sheer tools combined with his recent rate of improvement is very compelling.”
Bleacher Report
- Pick: No. 5
- Team: Toronto Raptors
- What they said about Ament: “Nate Ament has quickly climbed toward the top tier in the 2026 class with guard-like fluidity and scoring versatility at 6’9″. However, he’s still raw with occasional choppy execution, flashes of creativity, open-floor handling and three-level shotmaking. Ament is thin, could struggle with physicality and needs to continue improving his decision-making and shooting consistency. But his combination of size and shotmaking always creates visions of enticing outcomes to NBA scouts.”
USA Today
- Pick: No. 4
- Team: N/A
- What they said about Ament: N/A
