Nate Ament’s NBA Draft stock has dropped over the first half of his freshman season with Tennessee Basketball, but the former five-star prospect is still expected to be a top-10 pick this summer.

ESPN on Tuesday updated its NBA mock draft and projected Ament to be the No. 7 overall pick to the Charlotte Hornets. 

The 6-foot-10 Ament is averaging 14.9 points per game through 16 games, along with 6.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists. He’s shooting 40.3% from the field but just 28.8% from the 3-point line and 74.8% from the foul line. 

Nate Ament was projected to be a top-5 pick in entering the season

“Ament is one of the most difficult prospects to peg,” ESPN’s Jeremy Woo wrote in the mock draft, “with NBA scouts exhibiting varying degrees of patience surrounding the first half of his season. 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.”

Kansas freshman guard Darryn Peterson is ESPN’s current No. 1 overall pick, ahead of BYU freshman forward AJ Dybantsa at No. 2. Then it was Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer at No. 3, North Carolina freshman forward Caleb Wilson at No. 4 and Houston freshman point guard Kingston Flemings. 

Also ahead of Ament is Louisville freshman point guard Mikel Brown Jr. at No. 6. 

‘Most around the league find it difficult to see Ament falling out of the lottery entirely’

Entering the season Ament was projected to be a top-four pick in the NBA Draft and was at one time in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick, though he was never ahead of Peterson, Dybantsa or Boozer in the rankings. 

Ament had 17 points in Tennessee’s loss at Florida on Saturday, the most he has scored since he had 20 against Kansas in November. 

“NBA teams will watch closely to see if Ament can break out of his slump during the second half of the season,” Woo wrote. “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.”