Nate Ament is officially headed into the league, and the Milwaukee Bucks have him under contract after signing the former Tennessee standout on Thursday.
Ament, who came into college as a 5-star recruit and a top-five player in the class of 2025, was taken with the 13th overall pick in the NBA Draft after spending one season with the Volunteers. His lone year in Knoxville extended a run of NBA Draft success under Rick Barnes.
The deal with Milwaukee runs four years and is worth $25.9 million. Ament will make $5.5 million as a rookie, with his salary climbing to $8.6 million in the fourth year of the contract. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent after the 2030-2031 season.
At Tennessee, Ament arrived as the highest-rated player Barnes had ever signed. The Vols had to fend off Duke and other major programs to land him, paying somewhere in the $4 million range.
His college start was uneven, and that led to some split opinions among scouts and executives about where he fit at the next level. There was even talk that he might go back to Tennessee, but he declared for the draft and felt good enough about where he was projected.
That gamble paid off. Ament now gets a major chance with Milwaukee, where he is set to step into the role of replacing Giannis Antetokounmpo. Tennessee, meanwhile, appears to have come out fine as well, likely putting that money toward landing Juke Harris and capping off an excellent transfer portal class.
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For Tennessee, the bigger concern is not just turnover, but how often the program has had to reset around it. Tubners next stop adds another layer to that dynamic, especially with a transfer decision now tying him back into the same recruiting and roster conversations the Lady Vols are still navigating. Even after the staff changes were announced, the ripple effects of who left, who arrived and who followed are still being felt. [Read more 🡒]
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The timing matters because MacIntyre is about to enter a real competition for the starting job, with Faizon Brandon and Colorado transfer Ryan Staub also in the mix. Tennessee set 210 pounds as the target for him, and he is close enough now that the next step is less about the scale and more about how he carries that added size when the pads come on. [Read more 🡒]
Tennessees 2026 Roster Already Looks Different Under New Strength Staff
Tennessees offseason roster update already offers a glimpse of how much can change when a new strength staff gets to work. After hiring Derek Owings, the highest-paid strength coach in college football, the Vols have seen returning players come back with noticeably different bodies, a sign that the program is pushing for a different kind of physical profile heading into 2026.
The changes are not all in one direction, either. Some players have added size and muscle, while others have trimmed down, including a few names across the defense and along the line. For Tennessee, the real intrigue is how those shifts will show up once camp opens and the roster starts to look less like a spreadsheet and more like a depth chart. [Read more 🡒]