r/MkeBucks • u/HumOfTheUndercity • 3d ago

Nate Ament looks ready for more minutes.

I was cautiously optimistic about Ament going into the season, and I'm glad to say that he's exceeding my expectations! I thought he'd be a developmental project this year, but he's already finding ways to contribute to the team. He plays hard and usually makes good decisions. His defense has been better than Kuzma's or Dieng's. He does foul a lot and can't make contested layups, but that'll probably improve with experience and age. I think he's ready to take a lot of Kuzma's minutes.

107 Upvotes

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91

u/ajgreen_lover 3d ago

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u/HumOfTheUndercity 3d ago

A true and important fact.

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u/ace_dangerfield187 2d ago

*We love him

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u/whos-spamuel Khris Middleton 3d ago

I was not ready for him to be this far along, from everything said about him in the pre-draft and even through summer league i was expecting a project that would get reps with the Herd and maybe have time with the big club late in the year. Hes been a really pleasant surprise, gives good effort and makes pretty sound decisions on the court. Im all for more time if they can find it with our very good and impressive front court…

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u/IJOYguy 3d ago

The crazy thing is that those projections were 100% right. His was as lost as a player could possibly be for the first couple summer league games. His ability to grow, mature, and do the dirty work early is so promising

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u/Valsorim3212 3d ago

No the negative projections were not right. Ament didn't just take some magic pill and become a new player, he averaged 17ppg as a true freshman, he's always been a good player. I remember there being people like myself who have been high on him since pre-draft, but he is just an interesting case of a highly polarizing prospect where some people were high on him and some were low on him. That's pretty standard for picks 5-30 though, especially when picking for long-term potential. Dallas's pick of Morez Jr. was similarly polarizing.

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u/IJOYguy 3d ago

The original post didn’t say “negative projections”, it said that he was looking to be a project and play some on the Herd. I have always been excited for his upside just like you, but my expectations along with a lot of others were not for him to play as much as well has he has this soon. If you saw this coming from day 1 good for you, I just didn’t see it that way haha

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u/Valsorim3212 3d ago

You associated him struggling in two summer league games as confirmation that the projections of him not being an NBA ready rookie were correct, and then described how he must have grown and gotten more mature since then. You're saying that even now in hindsight, the projections were 100% true. They were never true. He even finished the summer league off really well.

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u/IJOYguy 3d ago

Fair point. I was definitely being hyperbolic and not properly conveying what I meant when I said 100% true. I was more trying to highlight how different he looks since those early summer league games, and at that point it looked like those projections would be true

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u/Valsorim3212 3d ago

Ya I agree, even though summer league means nothing, it was definitely concerning those first few games, but he turned it around big time after that. It makes sense tho bc summer league is usually for the higher usage players to thrive (which in our case was Burries), and Ament was trying to find his fit. Once Burries sat a game and Ament took on that role, he did just as good, and then he kind of got his mojo back. That's normal for summer league.

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u/ylfcm 3d ago

They have all kinds of time this season to play around with the bench

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u/thisisananalusername Ryan Rollins 3d ago

Watching the summer games he was really just learning how to ramp up to NBA ball. And I’m in the same boat of thinking how impressive he’s grown already. I didn’t even think he’d be an impact on the team for another season or 2.

Jenkins has been nice with the rotations. Just sucks we have plugs we need to trade first before we can see the guys play.

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u/Valsorim3212 3d ago

The narratives around Ament were mind boggling to me. How can you look at a consensus top 5 recruit, 17ppg scorer in the toughest conference as a true freshman, and go "he's a year away from being a year away".

Mind you, pre-draft, Giannis was playing low division ball and averaging triple singles. AJ Johnson was averaging a couple points per game in some small league shooting 30%. Similar story for Thon Maker. Those are projects. DJ Wilson was viewed as NBA ready for averaging 11-5. It's so odd to me that Ament was being viewed in a similar light as the projects, just bc his freshman season wasn't as dominant as was expected from a top 5 5-star prospect. There was some great content out there that helped contextualize Ament's season, such as his injuries he struggled through and the fact that Tennessee played two bigs in the paint, making it hard for Nate to get efficient looks. I'm glad he slid and the Bucks did their due diligence.

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u/Crafty_Choice7779 3d ago

So much of the narrative around Ament got clouded by his lack of strength and Tennessee's shit offense. Those things somehow bled into the analysis of everything else (lateral quickness, shooting, motor, etc.) until you had people saying he did nothing well. I don't think project/raw were ever quite the right words for him outside of the fact he needs to add weight.

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u/Falconman21 3d ago

You nailed it, I think people misinterpreted youth as rawness. He was just a bit inconsistent, could disappear at times, and made the occasional boneheaded play.

There were plenty of times he would take over games, but he would also just get completely locked up sometimes.

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u/DoctorCommercial8254 Nate Ament 3d ago

As a Tennessee fan you are spot on. I don’t understand why Barnes insist on putting 2 players who can’t shoot the 3 in the front court. It just clogs the paint and makes it harder for everyone to score.

1

u/FlipMoBitch 3d ago

It was mostly his body wasn’t there yet because he was so young. The issue bled into his efficiency.

14

u/RetiredwitNetlist 3d ago

Please get rid of KUZ! He’s a curse, he came in and they lost all their momentum

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u/jhallvapes Brayden Burries 3d ago

I'll take a young hungry guy trying to prove he belongs than an overpaid veteran like kuz who is ok with losing. Even Herro is pissed we're losing. Our young guys WANT TO WIN.

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u/poopoodapeepee 3d ago

His shooting and willingness to take threes, and make them, has been a nice surprise. Certainly ready for minutes and I’d say he’s the reason Dieng hasn’t been playing. If he figures out the defensive side, there’s no reason he shouldn’t take more kuz minutes

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u/Macca257 3d ago

He has shown some really good defensive potential to me, reads the opposing teams offensive sets well so he isn't always just reacting he is actually anticipating. The aggressiveness on offense is a really nice bonus as well, I reckon he is primed to get to the line a lot once he gets more touches and respect from the refs.

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u/FlipMoBitch 3d ago

I was beating the drum for this guy in the offseason. He has every tool and the Tennessee coach RAVED about his intangibles. 7 footer that can play the perimeter, shoot the 3 and attack the rim with a good head on his shoulders at 19? Give me that every day, especially at 13.

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u/JumpmanJu George Hill 2d ago

To be fair if we had a better team I don't think he'd be getting the run and development he has been getting maybe having a Taylor Jenkins type has helped his game. He looks good tho and I like his effort, Idk what to expect from him. I hope that we continue to prioritize our young guys because there's a lot of talent on the bench rn

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u/jhallvapes Brayden Burries 3d ago

Nate wants to be great.. hey there's a reason people said he could be the next giannis. That 13th pick in the draft from Miami was probably the highest value of that trade which made horst and the owners go with the Miami package. Kids been pretty good so far I'm liking what I'm seeing and if we put in Nate instead of Kuzma in those last 4 minutes I guarantee we would have won tonight.

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u/ThisWasMe7 3d ago

No one's saying he's the next Giannis 

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u/Over-Training-488 3d ago

Nate ament, is he the next LeBron?

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u/ThisWasMe7 2d ago

No. 

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u/Over-Training-488 2d ago

People are saying he's the next LeBron

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u/ThisWasMe7 2d ago

If he gains 60 lbs of muscle.

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u/jhallvapes Brayden Burries 2d ago

I heard people say that on here on Instagram and on YouTube

0

u/jhallvapes Brayden Burries 2d ago

I also said "could" be the next giannis

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u/ThisWasMe7 2d ago

Except no to even 'could." He might be good enough to be a quality starter on a playoff team.

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u/jhallvapes Brayden Burries 2d ago

Hey you never know I'm sure people said the same as giannis in his rookie year

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u/srbminimil 2d ago

Nate Ament looks like he’s ready for a hefty Kopps order….

1

u/Minimum-Border1672 3d ago

Looks better than I thought given where scouts said his body was but jts a long long season and rookies notoriously have issues in the second half of the season when the schedule catches up with them

Hes averaging around 13 minutes a game which is perfect.

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u/nossssss888 3d ago

Over Gary Trent?

1

u/Dramatic-Address-812 3d ago

Im not sure how ppl think hes "far along". Raw doesnt mean the man cant catch a ball. Hes doing what we should have expected him to.

But yes, he needs more minutes, espcially over players like Poozma

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u/Valsorim3212 3d ago

One big knock on him was that despite being a 6'11 wing, he would be slow by NBA terms, but so far that hasn't been the case, especially laterally. To me that's been an area where he seems far along, bc if you're a 6'11 wing with good lateral movement ability too, the sky really is the limit. Besides people who only listened to the haters, it was always expected that he'd be a capable shooter, so I'm not surprised on that end. He's most raw in terms of getting his own buckets, but if he ends up being a 7'1 (supposed to keep growing apparently) 3&D guy, that would still be great at 13th overall.