One of my favorite things about the NBA Draft is the impossibility that scouting is.
As a natural optimist, I find myself thinking about what a player can be, not what they are not. No player in the 2026 NBA Draft class requires that glass half full mindset like Tennessee’s Nate Ament. The projected lottery pick is often mocked in the middle of the first round, the range where the Charlotte Hornets possess two picks, and although there is a lot to like about Ament’s game, I’m struggling to reconcile how he would look in purple and teal.
Scouting Nate Ament
Nate Ament is a 6’9.5 wing with a 6’11.5″ wingspan that enrolled at the University of Tennessee with tremendous hype surrounding him. Before the 2025-26 college season, Ament was seen as “the best of the rest” in the 2026 incoming freshman class behind surefire prospects AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, and Cameron Boozer.
Ament’s main selling point as a high schooler was his rare combination of size, fluidity, and shot making. As a rising senior in high school, Ament shot 42% from long range on the Adidas AAU circuit, prompting the Director of Scouting at 247Sports.com Adam Finkelstein to say this:
“Ament is one of the best long-term prospects in the country. He’s an immense talent and still in the early stages of putting it all together. He has positional size for a face-up forward at over 6-foot-9 with an elastic body type, albeit a relatively modest 6-foot-11 wingspan…While not completely polished, Ament shows real potential as both a handler and a shooter. He posted 47/42/90 shooting splits in the 3SSB season. He has a high release and soft touch with a range that extends out to the three-point line.”
This context is important, because Ament failed to deliver on his promise as a prep in a relatively disappointing season as a Volunteer.
His college averages of 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game on 39/33/79 splits look fine on the surface, but upon further investigation, Ament left much to be desired from a play-to-play basis.
Ament was pigeonholed into being a primary driver of Tennessee’s offense and often looked overtaxed as a go-to creator. His shot diet eschewed attempts at the rim and from three for far too many midrange shots, and when watching Ament play, you can tell he struggled to create advantages as a jumbo play maker.
He has a good handle for a 6’9″ wing, but it is better served attacking a tilted defense on the secondary action of a possession instead of the primary one. If Ament doesn’t have a runway to explode to the basket and draw fouls (which he did at an elite rate in college), he’s liable to attempt an awkward, low quality two-point attempt against a good contest. In an conference game against fellow projected first-round draft pick Dailyn Swain and the Texas Longhorns, Ament was stripped by Swain multiple times when he was trying to rise up and attempt a mid-range jumper.
When Ament does get a chance to attack a switch or drive against a tilted defense, he does show some sweet fluidity and slick handles to get all the way downhill. It’s easy to imagine him looking much better on offense in a scaled down role at the next level.
The numbers don’t make Ament seem like a great passer (58th percentile assist/usage ratio, 50th percentile assist/turnover ratio), but he did flash some high-level processing skills at Tennessee. Again, I’d expect the assist/usage ratio to creep up when he reaches the NBA because he won’t be forced to soak up possessions as a go-to option on the wing early in his career.
Ament only connected on 33.3% of his threes at Tennessee, but his pre-college sample size says that he could vastly improve in that area moving forward. He has a smooth stroke that will be maximized in easier catch-and-shoot scenarios that are created by a teammate.
The defensive end of the floor is still an adventure for Ament as well. On one possession he’ll expertly swallow up the drive of a probing guard by flipping his hips and flashing his tantalizing fluidity on the perimeter, but then pick up a foul by playing too aggressively with his hands on the next. His rail thin frame shows up on this end – Ament can get buried under the basket by bigger, stronger players, and I’ll expect that to happen even more when the level of competition rises in the NBA.
He’s not a particularly impactful player in terms of the possession game either, ranking around the middle of the pack in meaningful statistics like offensive rebound rate (47th percentile), defensive rebound rate (45th), and steal rate (53rd percentile).
Analyzing Ament’s Fit in Charlotte
If you believe the Charlotte Hornets can afford for one of their two first round picks to take a gap year like Liam McNeeley did in 2026, then Ament should be high on your big board. He boasts tantalizing potential with a rare blend of skills that doesn’t grow on trees. If Ament can find his prep form as a three-point shooter, he is liable to develop into an impactful two-way with in short order with some time in an NBA strength and conditioning program under his belt.
Another point in Ament’s favor is the rapid rise up draft boards that Cameron Carr had once he left the University of Tennessee. Ament’s poor team-wide context in Rocky Top is key selling point for those who see the star potential in his profile.
In my opinion, I don’t think Charlotte can afford to let one of these two first round picks marinate in Greensboro this season. The Hornets are on the precipice of vaulting up the Eastern Conference hierarchy, and we’ve seen clear examples of rookies like Collin Murray-Boyles, Dylan Harper, and Carter Bryant impacting high-leverage playoff moments in recent weeks.
Ament isn’t ready to do that quite yet, and there’s a chance he never gets to that point if he doesn’t add significant mass to his svelte frame. Right now, Ament is a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none without a clear, discernable NBA-ready skill outside of his ability to draw fouls.
Previous iterations of the professional basketball franchise in Charlotte would have the runway to allow a prospect of Ament’s caliber to develop in the pipeline before throwing him to the wolves, but these Hornets are ready to win sooner rather than later — Ament won’t help with that right now.
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