Bucks make first important move with piece from Giannis trade with Nate Ament draft pick

Welcome to the Giannis-less Bucks era. With the 13th pick they received from the Heat in Monday night’s Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster, the Bucks selected Tennessee forward Nate Ament. According to On3, Ament was the No.3 overall player in the 2025 class, the No.

2 small forward in the nation and the No.1 overall player in Virginia. The five-star freshman made an immediate impact with the Volunteers, averaging 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in 35 contests last season. Ament started all 35 games and averaged nearly 30 minutes per contest while shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from 3-point range.

He racked up numerous awards in his lone season with Tennessee, earning seven SEC weekly honors and Second Team All-SEC Honors.The 19-year-old also helped guide the Volunteers to an Elite Eight appearance, as they beat Miami (Ohio), Virginia and Iowa State before falling to eventual champion Michigan. The Ament selection comes just three picks after the Bucks took Arizona guard Brayden Burries 10th overall, who helped the Wildcats punch their ticket to the Final Four. After trading away Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis for a haul on Monday and drafting Ament and Burries, it’s clear the Bucks may be entering a rebuilding stage following years of being a regular in the playoffs. The Bucks received 2024 first-round pick Kel’el Ware and 2023 first-rounder Jaime Jaquez Jr.in the blockbuster deal, who could help form a solid young core with Burries, Ament and Ryan Rollins in Taylor Jenkins’ first year as the team’s head coach. Jenkins is inheriting a team that went 32-50 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16. ...