From left, Milwaukee Bucks head coach Taylor Jenkins, draft picks Nate Ament and Brayden Burries, and general manager Jon Horst are seen during a press conference introducing the team's newest players at the Pieper-Hillside Boys & Girls Club in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on June 25, 2026. (Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
MILWAUKEE, WI (WSAU) – On Thursday afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks welcomed their 2026 first-round draft picks to Milwaukee and provided media members the opportunity to meet the franchise’s future stars.
Former Arizona guard Brayden Burriess and Tennessee forward Nate Ament stated that they were excited to be drafted by the Bucks, and Burries spoke about how he knew Milwaukee was a good fit for him, saying, “Growing up, you know, you want to get drafted, you want to make it to the NBA. And then as you get older, you kind of want to go to wherever the best fit is. And then kind of like when I heard the Bucks, they’re gonna pick me, like about to pick me, I was thinking like, dang, like, this is the best fit for me, and they want me. That’s the main thing.”
When asked about working with head coach Taylor Jenkins, Ament stated that he knew Jenkins was the right coach for during the pre-draft process saying, “Going through the whole pre-draft process and meeting with the Bucks organization, and what I love most about coach is while I sat down for my interview, he had a you know a low light tape of me of my five worst plays in college. And I think that’s super important. I think that, as a player who has a lot of room to grow, it’s important to have a coach who sees that in you, but also, like talking to him, it’s never really been about anything but basketball. So for me, I just want to surround myself with people who are basketball junkies and want to stay in the gym and want to get better every day. And I think I found that in Coach Jenkins.”
Both Burries and Ament lightly acknowledged the pressure of trying to replace an all-time player like Giannis Antetokounmpo, saying, “When the opportunity is given, you just got to take full advantage of it and make the best of the opportunity,” Burries said. Ament added then added, “I think we see it as another challenge. And luckily, we’re not doing it alone. We have a great organization behind us, and we have, like [Burries] said, great vets and great players on the team that can help us get to where we want to get to. Like Brayden first said, it’s about winning first and foremost, and whatever we can do to do that, we’re going to do it. So that’s just kind of our mentality going into it.”
Bucks fans will get their first chance to see Burries and Ament in Bucks uniforms when the league’s annual Summer League tournament begins in two weeks. The Bucks’ first game will be on July 4th in Sacramento against the Golden State Warriors at 2 p.m. CT, and then they will face the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings in the 2026 California Classic before moving to Las Vegas on July 10th to face the Miami Heat at 3 p.m. CT.
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