Former Bruin Looking to Carve NBA Role in Summer League

The NBA Summer League in Salt Lake City ramped up on Friday night, and one UCLA alum stood out for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Prior to arriving in Westwood, Adem Bona was named a McDonald’s All-American and was a consensus five-star recruit who ultimately chose to play for the Bruins.

Bona had a decorated résumé while wearing the blue and gold. He achieved the highest honors such as Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, All-Pac-12 First Team (twice), as well as Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

But it was time for Bona to achieve his dream after two years in school. He continued to collect every accolade under the sun and developed as one of the best big men in college basketball.

Ultimately, he was drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia 76ers, and for the most part, there are more parts of his game that he should develop, like a jump shot and his ability to stay out of foul trouble.

Here’s the problem though.

In the opener for Summer League as the Sixers took on the Utah Jazz, while Bona looked dynamic and like a force to be reckoned with in the paint, the fouls started piling up.

Summer League allows a longer leash for fouling, giving younger players and other NBA hopefuls a longer look should they find themselves in trouble. You get 10 fouls in Summer League as opposed to the usual six. Bona had eight.

There’s nothing that drives a coach crazy quite like avoidable fouls, and while Bona looks like he belongs as a player, you need to stay on the floor.

Fouling aside, everything else looked very promising from Bona. He went head-to-head with Kyle Filipowski of the Jazz and racked up 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, as well as eight rebounds.

There was a spring in his step, collecting offensive rebounds, as well as violent putbacks.

That’s one aspect you want to see more out of Bona: the violence.

He has such an explosiveness to him that if he cleans up his fouls, he can easily become a rotational player, as well as a fan favorite.

He proved he can play at the next level, too.

Philadelphia knew the writing was on the wall for the season, so as it wore on, the Sixers gave opportunities to their young guys to see what they had.

In his final 15 games, Bona excelled by putting up 13.6 points per game, 8.3 rebounds, and an astounding 2.4 blocks.

He looked legit, and the Sixers knew they had a special talent on their hands, one who just needs to stay honest when defending.

There were times in the 15-game stretch where he amassed five personal fouls multiple times, which is alarming, but the talent is extremely apparent.

Using this time in Summer League will only be beneficial to Bona as he continues to develop his game.

But one thing is for sure: Bona possesses an immense amount of potential that can wind up being an electric piece for the Sixers moving forward.

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