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In many ways, I feel like I know exactly what to expect from Nate Ament this season, but in many others, I have no freaking idea. Conventional wisdom tells you that he’ll spend a lot of the season with the Herd—certainly at the start of the year—but also, lottery picks generally do not play much in the G League. Something has to give. Ament is a unique case because he was picked at that spot based much more on potential than the raw production he showed in college. You’re looking a year or two down the road with him and wondering what he can be when his body fills out. That leaves me… confused.
Ament had an interesting Summer League. It started really slow, with the 19-year-old failing to reach double digits until the fourth game, when he broke out against the Hornets for 23 points on 7/13 shooting. This was followed by an almost game against the Sixers, where he tallied 12 points, seven rebounds, and three assists, but nine of those points came in the opening quarter, only for almost everything to rim out for the rest of the game (or an and-one getting reversed into a charge that seemed… very questionable).
As I’ve written about previously, Ament’s path to minutes at the NBA level will come through finding his niche and keeping his game simple. Right now, his best attribute is probably his catch-and-shoot ability; he shot nearly 40% from deep in Vegas. If he can force defenders to respect him, it will open up his ability to pump fake, drive the closeout, and make the next play. Of course, Ament does struggle to break guys down off the dribble—and I don’t know if that will ever be a strength of his—but he can drive hard left, body the defender, reverse pivot, and shoot a turnaround over his left shoulder. The Virginia native did this move repeatedly in college, and I think it will work at the next level against smaller defenders (of which there will be a good number, given his positional size at 6’10”).
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The other part is the defence. It was bad at Summer League—much worse than I expected. That said, it felt like a lot of those struggles came down to over-aggressiveness and poor…
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Publish date : 2026-09-18 12:00:00
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