The Brooklyn Nets are hoping to get a player in the 2026 NBA Draft that will be a huge part of the team’s future plans towards getting back to the playoffs. Brooklyn has been linked to various players over the course of the pre-draft portion of the calendar, but one of the players the Nets have been connected to seems to have varying opinions about his profile.
“Ament’s draft range is one of the more difficult ones to figure out. He’s working out with teams throughout the middle of the lottery, and the buzz with the Nets, as Jon Rothstein would say, has been palpable,” Sam Vecenie wrote in his latest mock draft for The Athletic. Tennessee forward Nate Ament has been one of the main players linked to the Nets recently, but he seems to be one of the more polarizing players in the Lottery.
“And yet, scouts are mixed on him. The ones who like him appreciate his ability to play with the ball in his hands, think that he’s a better shooter than he was this year at Tennessee and like his professional mindset,” Vecenie continued. “But other scouts worry about his frame and lack of strength, wondering if it’s comparable to some of the issues 2024 No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher has dealt with early in his career with the Hawks.”
Ament, listed at 6-foot-10 and 210 pounds, presents as the kind of forward that could be a difficult player for opposing teams to guard thanks to his positional size. However, as Vecenie alluded to, Ament being just 210 pounds could be a detriment depending on how he is able to adapt to defending at the NBA level despite not having much weight on him.
Ultimately, the question around Ament is whether his career can be closer to someone like Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant, in terms of skillset and body type, as opposed to someone like Atlanta Hawks forward Zaccarie Risacher. At the end of the day, the Nets are considering multiple players with the No. 6 pick, but it seems like Ament is one of the more questionable prospects in the eyes of some scouts.
This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Report: scouts mixed on potential Nets 2026 NBA Draft pick Nate Ament
Reporting by Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire / Nets Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire | USA TODAY Network
