2024 NBA Draft: Potential Lottery Pick Aday Mara Signs With UCLA
Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins have landed potential lottery pick, Aday Mara out of Spain. Mara is a 7-foot-3 big who last played for Basket Zaragoza in Liga ACB. UCLA is re-tooling its roster this off-season after losing key players in Jaime Jaquez Jr, Jaylen Clark, Tyger Campbell, Amari Bailey, and David Singleton. The highest returning scorer is Adem Bona who averaged nearly eight points per game for the Bruins.
The Bruins roster will be looking completely different this upcoming season as it has seven freshmen and one transfer coming in. Aday Mara, a big man out of Spain, will be the top name out of this group as he brings a unique combination of size, skill, defense, and feel for the game. Let’s dive into a deeper look into his game and talk about his fit next to potential first round pick, Adem Bona.
Mara stands at 7-foot-3 with a ridiculous 7-foot-7 wingspan which’ll make him one of the biggest players in all of college basketball. The size combined with his finishing ability and touch around the rim goes very well together. He can be utilized in the dunker spot, as a roll-man, and be given some touches in the low post due to his skill and ability to find the open teammate.
The combination of his passing ability and rim protection for a center is what could separate him from other prospects at his position in the draft. It’s not common in college basketball where a 7-foot-3 big man has the ability to average at least three assists and two blocks per game but Mara has the two-way ability to do so.
The big question is how he fits next to fellow first-round talent Adem Bona, as they both primarily play the center position. Defensively there shouldn’t be any doubt that they can coexist due to Bona’s ability to effectively defend out in space while being an elite secondary rim protector. Mara isn’t very comfortable out in space on defense but his size and paint defense on the interior makes up for a lot of it.
Offensively is where the fit next to each other could become an issue as Bona doesn’t have much of perimeter game and could clog the paint a good amount which would force Mara to play a bit more out of the paint than what he might be used to but luckily enough, he has the passing ability and shooting upside to make up for it. We should expect to see a lot of high to low passes between Mara and Bona when they’re on the floor together.
At the very least UCLA will have a really good center on the floor at all times which not many programs in division one basketball can say. Overall, it’ll be interesting to see how Mara translates his two-way ability to the college game as it’s a much different game than what he was playing internationally but given his natural feel for the game and high IQ he should have a very smooth transition.
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