{"id":146991,"date":"2025-07-04T15:55:17","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/146991\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T15:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T15:55:17","slug":"espn-explains-why-nate-ament-could-be-no-1-pick-in-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/146991\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN explains why Nate Ament could be No. 1 pick in NBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee Basketball<\/a> five-star freshman Nate Ament<\/a> is one of four players that has a shot to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, according to ESPN\u2019s Jonathan Givony<\/a>, but he has the longest odds in the group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

ESPN has Kansas freshman guard Darryn Peterson<\/a>, BYU freshman wing A.J. Dybantsa<\/a> and Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer<\/a>, along with Ament, as the possibilities for the No. 1 pick next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost NBA teams think it would be difficult, but not impossible, to usurp Peterson and Dybantsa as the top two players,\u201d Givony wrote<\/a>, \u201cbarring a major surprise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ament committed to and signed with Tennessee in April, picking the Vols over Duke, Kentucky, Arkansas and Louisville, among others. He\u2019s one of the highest-ranked prep prospect to ever sign with Tennessee, finishing his prep career as the No. 2 overall player in the 2025 class in the On3 ratings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAment is a late addition to the No. 1 pick conversation and the furthest away of the four from reaching his potential,\u201d Givony wrote<\/a>, \u201cin no small part because he weighs 186 pounds. But ultra-talented wing players with his fluidity, shotmaking prowess, defensive versatility and scoring ability are often deemed franchise-type prospects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tobias Harris in 2010 and Allan Houston in 1989 are the only other Tennessee players who were consensus top-five players as recruits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ament is the seventh five-star prospect to sign with the Vols during the Rick Barnes<\/a> era and is the 13th McDonald\u2019s All-American in Tennessee\u2019s program history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were plenty of NBA executives who walked out of the McDonald\u2019s All American Game in April and said Ament has (NBA) All-Star potential,\u201d Givony wrote<\/a>. \u201cAfter starting practice at Tennessee on June 17, Ament appears to be adding weight and will be in a featured role in the SEC, giving him every opportunity to make his case as a surprise No. 1 candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s first mock draft for the 2026 NBA Draft has Peterson at No. 1 overall to the Washington Wizards, Dybantsa at No. 2 to the Utah Jazz and Boozer at No. 3 to the Brooklyn Nets.<\/p>\n

Ament is projected at No. 4 overall to the Charlotte Hornets.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a tremendous shotmaker,\u201d Givony wrote in the mock draft<\/a>. \u201cHe 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\u2019ll 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tennessee Basketball five-star freshman Nate Ament is one of four players that has a shot to be the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,6,12,195],"class_list":{"0":"post-146991","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-draft","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-nba-draft","11":"tag-regwall"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114795782278405235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}