Bucks update with Nate Ament could provide Giannis key solution in NBA Draft

Bucks update with Nate Ament could provide Giannis key solution in NBA Draft originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

If the Milwaukee Bucks trade Giannis Antetokounmpo, there's no real way to replace him.

But the Bucks could at least try to replace some of what he provided, like immense frontcourt length packaged together with skill.

That's at least a similar description to Nate Ament, the NBA Draft prospect out of Tennessee.

Ament isn't Antetokounmpo, but he could be the type of guy who helps Milwaukee begin to move on from their all-time great.

And the good news about Ament is that he might actually still be available when the Bucks are drafting.

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If no one moved in the lottery, the Bucks would pick 10th in the 2026 NBA Draft, and ESPN's Jeremy Woo projects they'd take Ament in that spot.

Considering Ament entered his freshman season as a projected top-10 pick, that'd be a great outcome in Milwaukee.

"While Ament's stock has slipped from an early top-five projection, he had productive stretches this season within a tricky team context and has room to help himself in workouts," Woo writes. "Although scouts are split on whether he has star upside or projects better as a long-term supporting player, there is still plenty of intrigue around the opportunity to select a prospect of his caliber later in the lottery. As a tall skill player with real shotmaking upside, Ament fits a player archetype that teams often love to swing on."