After fairly consistently landing a Top 5 projection in ESPN’s NBA mock drafts throughout the season, Nate Ament has taken a bit of a slide in Tuesday’s update from analyst Jeremy Woo. But the recent drop in stock hasn’t been enough to take him out of the Top 10 entirely.
Woo has Ament projected to go No. 7 overall to the Charlotte Hornets, but does acknowledge that the freshman forward from Tennessee is one of the more difficult prospects to get a full read on at this point in the process.
“Ament is one of the most difficult prospects to peg, with NBA scouts exhibiting varying degrees of patience surrounding the first half of his season,” Woo writes. “He has struggled to score efficiently (52.9% TS) and adjust physically to the college game. Perhaps more concerning than his shotmaking struggles (28.8% from 3) is the fact that he hasn’t looked especially athletic, making it hard for him to create advantages as a perimeter scorer or consistently affect play away from the ball. He might wind up best suited at power forward, rather than on the wing.”
Tennessee is still in the opening stages of SEC play with three conference games under its belt. Ament scored 13 points on 44.4% shooting against Arkansas, eight points on 50% shooting against Texas, and 17 points on 45.5% shooting against Florida. Ament has feasted on some of Tennessee’s lesser competition, but the numbers have taken a bit of a hit against ranked and SEC opponents.
How Ament continues to adjust to SEC play, especially with Tennessee needing a scorer to step up to help Ja’Kobi Gillespie, will be something that scouts will keep an eye on.
“NBA teams will watch closely to see if Ament can break out of his slump during the second half of the season,” Woo writes. “Most around the league find it difficult to see Ament falling out of the lottery entirely, as players of his size (6-foot-10) with perimeter skills are simply hard to find, and his upside as a stretch-four remains intriguing. But whichever team selects him will do so with the understanding that he could take multiple years to blossom into an impactful player. His range is much wider than expected a few months ago, particularly if he’s unable to turn things around.”
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Through 16 games this season, Ament is averaging 14.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.5 assists per game. And despite head coach Rick Barnes fairly pointing out areas for improvement for Ament throughout the season, he’s still optimistic that his young freshman will be able to turn the corner.
“He played with a really good purpose today,” Barnes said after the Vols’ loss to Florida. “I thought, kept it simple. Actually, when he turned it over, he reverted back to some of the things he did. But overall, I thought he had a really — Nate’s gonna be fine. I’ve said it all along. I don’t know, I’m sure people have gotten on (him), but I wouldn’t trade Nate for anybody. He’s a lot tougher than everybody knows. I don’t think he’s ever gotten a great whistle, and because every time he gets hit, everybody thinks because he’s thin, it’s not a foul. That’s not necessarily true, and I’m not talking today, I’m talking about in general over the whole year. I was proud of Nate and his mindset today.”
Ament is the highest-projected player from the SEC in Woo’s mock draft, but not by a wide margin. Woo has Kentucky center Jayden Quaintance as the No. 8 pick to Chicago, Arkansas point guard Darius Acuff Jr. as the No. 9 pick to Dallas, and Florida forward Thomas Haugh as the No. 10 pick to Milwaukee.
Ament and No. 24 Tennessee will return to the court on Tuesday night for a home conference game against Texas A&M at 7:00 p.m. ET in the Food City Center. Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live coverage of the game.
