Danny Chau of The Ringer released his latest mock draft as we inch close to Round 2 of the NBA playoffs. The Miami Heat are projected to have the No. 13 pick prior to Monday's official draft lottery drawing. In this mock draft, the Heat select Tennessee Volunteers forward Nate Ament.
"The Nikola Jovic experiment has stalled out in Miami," Chau wrote. "Time for a new iteration. This pick (and several pieces of the Heat’s core) may be on the market, but should they keep it, Ament makes sense as an upside swing. It was an up-and-down college season for the five-star recruit, but Ament has unteachable size and fluidity that offers a solid foundation for his development as an on- and off-ball scorer. Miami got a lot of mileage out of Jimmy Butler’s ability to manufacture points at the line, and if there is one thing that Ament has demonstrated a real gift for, it’s a sense for drawing fouls."
Ament helped lead the Volunteers to the Elite 8 of the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 16.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists while shooting 39.9 percent from the field and 33.3 percent from three-point range. Ament was viewed as a five-star recruit and was the No. 4 recruit in the ESPN recruitment rankings heading into this season.
"Shows pretty impressive fluidity and comfort as a ball handler for his position when he’s working to set up his defender," the article added. "Can get low and extend his arms to wiggle and protect his dribble or flatten out when he’s trying to turn the corner on an opponent. Very coordinated. Certainly prefers the life of a scoring wing and plays exclusively at the two higher levels of the floor rather than at the basket. Can get downhill in a way that challenges switched bigs to move with him for multiple strides and forces them to stop while also being able to work his way to the 10-to-15-feet area and rise up over switched smalls."
Miami could use another forward, especially if the team parts with Andrew Wiggins this offseason. His player option is up this offseason for $30 million. Ament has the skillset but just needs to improve his efficiency for the next level.
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