The 2026 NBA Draft is just days away, and Tennessee basketball fans have a vested interest in where former Volunteers wing Nate Ament hears his name called. The two-day event runs June 23–24 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and Ament — the lone Vol projected to go in the first round — has spent the entire pre-draft cycle bouncing around the lottery in mock after mock.
That uncertainty has made for some interesting numbers at the sportsbook. As of Thursday morning, DraftKings has posted a full slate of draft-position markets for the class, and Ament shows up across several of them — from heavy favorite to absolute longshot depending on which question you’re asking. Here’s a look at where his odds sit at the time of publication, and what a $25 bet would actually pay out.
Nate Ament’s 2026 NBA Draft odds at DraftKings
DraftKings lists Ament in three notable buckets: to land somewhere inside the top 10, to be the No. 11 pick specifically, and to go No. 1 overall. The spread between them tells the whole story of his draft stock. Below, each market is broken out with the odds at the time of publication and the total return on a $25 wager if it hits.
How new DraftKings users can get $200 in bonus bets before draft night: For Vols fans who want to put a little something on Ament’s draft night, DraftKings is currently running a welcome offer for new customers: sign up, place your first bet of $5 or more, and receive $200 in bonus bets. Those bonus bets can be applied to any market on the board — including Ament’s draft-position lines.
Nate Ament to be drafted in the top 10
| Player | Odds (Yes) | $25 total return |
|---|---|---|
| Brayden Burries | −500 | $30.00 |
| Nate Ament | −105 | $48.81 |
| Yaxel Lendeborg | +240 | $85.00 |
| Labaron Philon | +270 | $92.50 |
| Karim Lopez | +270 | $92.50 |
| Cameron Carr | +550 | $162.50 |
| Morez Johnson Jr. | +600 | $175.00 |
| Jayden Quaintance | +750 | $212.50 |
| Hannes Steinbach | +1400 | $375.00 |
| Bennett Stirtz | +1600 | $425.00 |
| Ebuka Okorie | +1600 | $425.00 |
| Koa Peat | +2200 | $575.00 |
This is the most telling line of the bunch. At −105, DraftKings is essentially calling it a coin flip whether Ament goes inside the first ten picks. A $25 wager would return $48.81 total — $23.81 in profit. That near-even number lines up with how the mocks have treated Ament lately, with ESPN’s most recent projection slotting him at No. 10 to the Milwaukee Bucks and the Brooklyn Nets at No. 6 viewed as his realistic ceiling.
Nate Ament to be the No. 11 pick
| Player | Odds | $25 total return |
|---|---|---|
| Yaxel Lendeborg | +300 | $100.00 |
| Brayden Burries | +500 | $150.00 |
| Nate Ament | +550 | $162.50 |
| Aday Mara | +650 | $187.50 |
| Karim Lopez | +750 | $212.50 |
| Morez Johnson Jr. | +900 | $250.00 |
| Labaron Philon | +1000 | $275.00 |
| Kingston Flemings | +1400 | $375.00 |
| Cameron Carr | +1600 | $425.00 |
| Jayden Quaintance | +2500 | $650.00 |
| Hannes Steinbach | +2500 | $650.00 |
| Ebuka Okorie | +2500 | $650.00 |
| Mikel Brown Jr. | +4000 | $1,025.00 |
| Koa Peat | +5000 | $1,275.00 |
For backers who think Ament slides just outside the top 10, the No. 11 market offers a much bigger payout for a precise call. At +550, a $25 bet returns $162.50 total. The range has been getting wider, too: in a mock draft published this week, Yahoo’s Kevin O’Connor dropped Ament out of the lottery entirely, projecting him at No. 15 to the Chicago Bulls — right in the neighborhood DraftKings is pricing with this market.
Nate Ament to go No. 1 overall
| Player | Odds | $25 total return |
|---|---|---|
| AJ Dybantsa | −400 | $31.25 |
| Darryn Peterson | +280 | $95.00 |
| Cameron Boozer | +2200 | $575.00 |
| Caleb Wilson | +8000 | $2,025.00 |
| Darius Acuff Jr. | +15000 | $3,775.00 |
| Nate Ament | +30000 | $7,525.00 |
| Mikel Brown Jr. | +30000 | $7,525.00 |
| Kingston Flemings | +30000 | $7,525.00 |
| Keaton Wagler | +30000 | $7,525.00 |
| Yaxel Lendeborg | +50000 | $12,525.00 |
The +30000 on Ament going No. 1 overall is exactly what it looks like — a 300-to-1 lottery ticket. That pick is widely expected to come down to BYU’s AJ Dybantsa or Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, and DraftKings has Dybantsa at −400 to go first. Ament has never been part of that conversation, so the only appeal here is the payout: a $25 flier would return $7,525 in the extremely unlikely event it cashed.
What about Polymarket?
If you’ve spent any time around prediction markets, you might wonder how Polymarket is pricing Ament — especially with the platform leaning so heavily into sports markets this year. The short answer: not well, at least not for this.
Polymarket only offers draft-position markets for the top five picks of the 2026 NBA Draft. Because the top four picks are widely considered locked up by the class’s marquee names, the only market where a player like Ament realistically appears is the “5th Overall Pick” market. And in that one, Ament is trading at roughly a penny — an implied probability of about 1% — on extremely thin volume (under $400 on his line). It’s technically the only place to back Ament on Polymarket, but with that little liquidity, it’s more curiosity than a genuine betting option.
The contrast is the useful part here. A sportsbook like DraftKings can post granular markets — exact pick, top 5, top 10, and more — with enough liquidity to price them tightly. A prediction market like Polymarket, at least for a niche question like a mid-lottery draft slot, simply doesn’t have the depth yet to compete. For a player in Ament’s range, the sportsbook markets are far more useful.
That said, if you do want to explore Polymarket, new users can sign up with our referral code ROCKY to claim a $50 trading bonus after depositing $20. A Vols fan feeling especially bold could put that toward Ament going fifth overall — a high-payout, low-probability swing if there ever was one.
The bottom line on Ament’s draft night
However the board falls, Ament profiles as a high-upside developmental wing — ESPN’s pre-draft comps for him ranged from a “bigger Harrison Barnes” on the high end to Ziaire Williams on the low end. The sportsbooks see a player most likely to land right around the back half of the lottery, with the top-10 question close enough to call a toss-up. We’ll find out for sure when the first round gets underway June 23.
Odds referenced in this article were accurate as of the morning of Thursday, June 18, 2026, and are subject to change. Please gamble responsibly.
