Leading into his rookie season, Nate Ament has already been linked to plenty of familiar names, and one of the most interesting is Andrew Wiggins. That comparison should catch the Bucks’ attention, because Wiggins is the kind of player Milwaukee has reportedly pursued for years. If Ament develops the way they hope, he could end up looking like the backup plan that finally worked.
Wiggins has been in the Bucks’ orbit for a long time. His name surfaced in trade chatter involving Milwaukee repeatedly, and as recently as last July, NBA insiders Jake Fischer and Marc Stein reported that the team still had him on its radar. But despite all that interest, the Bucks never landed him, and it now seems unlikely they ever will.
The appeal is obvious. Since losing P.J.
Tucker in 2021, Milwaukee has struggled to replace that edge on the perimeter. Tucker’s value was in taking on the toughest defensive assignments night after night, and Wiggins would have fit that job description.
He also brought the kind of scoring versatility that makes a wing even more valuable.
Now, with the Giannis Antetokounmpo era over, Milwaukee’s attention shifts elsewhere. Instead of continuing to chase Wiggins, the Bucks will look to Ament and hope he can grow into that kind of role.
Ament is not a perfect replica. He is four inches taller and carries a little more than 10 pounds more than Wiggins.
Even so, the comparison makes sense at a glance. Both players can score smoothly from different spots on the floor, and both have the kind of length that can bother opponents defensively.
The shooting piece still matters for Ament. Like Wiggins later in his career, he’ll need to sharpen his perimeter game if he wants to reach his ceiling. That’s a workable issue in today’s NBA, but it remains part of the evaluation.
The bigger concern is his frame. Ament has the size and length, but he is still slim for his position, and bigger forwards could try to exploit that.
At 19, he is still early in the process and far from a finished product, which leaves plenty of room for growth. The real question is how much more physical development is still ahead.
That makes him a project, but also a player with real upside. The Bucks may not have gotten Wiggins, but in Ament they have someone whose ceiling is hard to measure. And when a rookie gets compared to a player who was once a Rookie of the Year, an All-Star, and an NBA champion, that tells you the kind of potential people see.
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