NBA Draft Scouting Report: Michigan Center Aday Mara

Aday Mara has a unique combination of size and feel for the game.

Feb 8, 2026; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Michigan Wolverines center Aday Mara (15) drives to the basket as Ohio State Buckeyes center Ivan Njegovan (7) defends during the first half at Value City Arena. Mandatory Credit: Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images | Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

Michigan center Aday Mara is one of the most unique and polarizing players in the 2026 NBA Draft cycle, offering a 7-foot-3 big who can thrive in some traditional ways, with a dash of feel and processing that isn’t often seen in players his size.

He spent two so-so seasons with UCLA, playing just 11.5 minutes per game across 61 games, but is now amid a breakout season with the top-ranked Michigan Wolverines, helping to make up what is likely the best and most versatile frontcourt in the nation.

Mara has claim to being one of the best true fives in a ’26 class loaded with talented bigs. His major strengths include his immense length and physical tools, rim protection, rebounding, play-finishing, and passing and play-making upside.

Aday Mara Scouting Report

1. Strengths:
2. Areas of Improvement:
3. Outlook:

Strengths:

Physical Tools

To state the obvious, Mara’s physical tools are largely the reason he’s seeing the success and getting the draft acclaim that he is. He stands at a gargantuan 7-foot-3 with a reported 7-foot-7 wingspan, measurements that simply don’t pass through the draft ranks often.

Mara’s a towering presence as far as collegiate bigs go, and depending on where the official measurement lands him, he could end up as the league’s second tallest player alongside Zach Edey at 7-foot-3, second only to Victor Wembanyama. His official Basketball Without Borders measurement placed him at 7-2 with a 7-6.75 wingspan, which would still help him crack the NBA’s top five, joining Donovan Clingan, Kristaps Porzingis and Walker Kessler.

Additionally, Mara has a little bit more mobility, fluidity and coordination than your typical big of this size. This obviously has its limits, but he is a little lighter on his feet than you’d expect — which is notable because he isn’t thin like some current NBA seven-footers, weighing in at 255 pounds per Michigan.

There’s no question that the NBA is becoming increasingly infatuated with majorly plus size, and having a back-pocket option in Mara with players such as Wembanyama, Chet Holmgren, Alex Sarr, Evan Mobley and plenty more 7-footers surging, is a small reason his stock could end up higher than it seems.

Rim-Protection and Rebounding

Two of the things most aided by Mara’s size and length are his rim-protection and rebounding, which are likely his two biggest natural strengths at the five.

Starting with his general defense, Mara’s an imposing figure in the paint, able to block and deter shots with ease due to size, instincts and great timing. His presence alone leads to overthinking from scorers around the rim, and for good reason.

He’s blocking 2.8 shots per game with Michigan across just 22.8 minutes, rounding out to a ridiculous 6.6 blocks per 100 possessions. Overall, he’s posted a 13% block percentage, paired a defensive box plus-minus of 8.8 pointing to how much he’s putting a lid on the rim when on the court.

Mara’s feel for the game is much more apparent in flashy offensive stuff, but he’s a smart defender with a great sense of game-flow and positioning, which when paired with his size it makes him a potent rim-protector.  In total, players are shooting just 30% in the vicinity of Mara.

He’s a bit up-and-down in the discipline department, showing the wherewithal to contest without fouling on some occasions, but seeing a few nights where he can be trigger happy.

Mara plays the majority of his defense in drop coverage, meaning when ball screens involving his man happen, he backpedals and attempts to keep both the handler and screener in front. He’s quite effective here, with good feel for how the action is shaping up, anticipation and obviously size that’s hard to get around, and obvious recovery tools with his wingspan. His better-than-expected mobility shines the most here.

He’s holding the roll man to just 27% shooting in total on 30 attempts, per Synergy, and these are mostly missed threes given collegiate bigs don’t have the tools or even feel the need to test him often. That’s a phenomenal mark and a good indicator that Mara is going to have NBA value on the defensive end from day one.

Mara’s also a productive rebounder, able to put his size and length to use by bringing down seven boards per game, good for a whopping 16.7 per 100 possessions. Five of his rebounds per game are defensive, with just over two being offensive.

Mara’s build does most of the leg-work here obviously, but he’s gotten better about grappling for position, and has a decent enough feel for rebounding the ball. At the college level, there’s times where he doesn’t even have competition for the ball if he can find himself in the right spot.

He’s pretty unstoppable on the offensive glass with a head of steam, able to get some air under him and rise for put-backs.

Overall, Mara’s unique combination of size and instincts seems set to infuse these more traditional big areas with impact, regardless of competition, which is certainly valuable.

Play-Finishing

To that end, Mara’s offense benefits from the same combination, helping him to be an effective play-finisher around the rim. 

Overall, Mara’s scoring 11.2 points in just 22 minutes on an elite 65% shooting from the field, great marks in obviously limited time. Seventy percent of his field goal attempts have come at the rim, and he’s converted on a usually game-altering 74% of those.

Mara is just an un-ignorable target around the rim, nearly uncontainable with his size and length, able to shoot over others, and contort himself with the flexibility needed to take different angles. He’s an easy target on lobs, with a wide catch radius and enough focus to see difficult shots in traffic through.

He’s notably converted on a great 68% of layups, showcasing touch that makes up for a lack of vertical explosiveness, but just 86% on dunks, pointing to a need to add strength overall.

Mara’s scored the bulk of his points this season with Michigan on post-ups, converting 54% of those. He’s also functioned as the roll-man, hitting 71% of those shots, is an elite cutter given his size at 82%, usually just kind’ve naturally hovering toward space while handlers are driving, and is obviously elite in garnering put-backs at a blistering 75%.

Again his touch is the highlight here, as he can be pretty feathery in going off the glass either direction, or even using floaters on occasion. Given he’s basically already in the stratosphere, this can lead to tons of convert-able looks. 

It’s certainly possible that NBA teams will post Mara up given his size and passing skill, which we’ll touch on. But I think the he’ll really need to continue evolving his pick-and-roll skillset to get the most out of his offense.

This mostly just involves continuing to be effective here at higher volume, given he’s shown OK mobility and finishing at 1.2 points per possession in the pick-and-roll.

Ultimately, Mara just needs some general refinement across this area to prove himself worthy of being put on the floor. Otherwise, his physical tools alone will carry him a decent ways offensively.

Passing and Play-Making Upside

Far-and-away the most unique aspect of Aday Mara’s game is his passing and play-making upside, which is pretty special as far as 7-footers go.

Mara is averaging 2.5 assists to 2.0 turnovers per game, posting an 18.5 assist percentage, already good face-value passing numbers for a big. 

It might be because of his unnatural size, but there are only a few of Mara’s assists on tape that don’t feel like highlights. His ability to see over the defense is a real weapon, and he has a knack for reading the floor and dishing accordingly, even showing some manipulation stuff, which is ultra-rare for a big.

Mara can do a little bit of everything: outlets fresh off the glass, hub-esque stuff in DHO’s and patience hitting shooters and especially cutters, lobs, quick reads out of the short-roll, high-low big actions with precision around the rim, these little behind-the-back flips when pressured.

He showcases just enough accuracy with just enough consistency to believe in this area long-term, and can fit passes through exceptionally tight windows.

On the other end, there’s still tons of refinement needed here, pointing to the upside portion. Mara can be really loose with the ball, a little too patient in waiting for the exact right pass — allowing pressure to get to him — and can force it a little too much. Something NBA teams will especially look to cut out is when his fondness for the flashy play turns on him in the form of rough turnovers.

But ultimately, his general feel, positive assist-to-turnover ratio and overall improvement point to a really great building block.

This is an especially great skill for Mara to have given it just adds a layer of versatility overall. Rather than a simply traditional big who thrives only with size, it puts his ball skill and feel front and center, and adds some dynamism that all NBA teams will be looking for out of their modern bigs.

Areas of Improvement:

Strength, Physicality and Conditioning 

We've bundled a few of his notable weaknesses together here that follow a similar thread: notably his strength, physicality and conditioning. 

Being a big in the modern NBA is no small task, and added strength and physicality will especially be a point of emphasis for Mara given it’s already something he struggles with.

This rears its head on both ends. For now, his length makes up for it the majority of the time, but there’s still moments where he’s easily bumped off a spot on offense, moved entirely out of position on defense, fails to make clean contact on a screen or is out-rebounded by an especially energetic matchup. And again, these things could be exacerbated by the much bigger-faster-stronger NBA.

Strength will come along simply by continuing to work on his body and with general training, but a little more aggressiveness and the embracing of physicality in the trenches could go a long way.

Perhaps the more notable of all of these is Mara’s conditioning. As you have probably gathered by this point, Mara is only averaging 22.6 minutes per game, and that’s largely due to the fact he’s simply unable to play for extended stretches in any given game.

He gets fatigued fairly quickly depending on how much moving is being done, and upwards of 25 minutes per game at the NBA level in the next few years feels out of reach to this point. 

Donovan Clingan, an OK comp for Mara, struggled with some of these same issues in two championship seasons at UConn, but has now leveled out to around 27 minutes per game in Year 2 with Portland. So there is some positive upside here to work with.

General Versatility

There's plenty more options to consider here for improvement areas, and ultimately, just due to the uniqueness of Mara, we've landed on general versatility.

Aside from his feel for the game and passing ability, which admittedly does add some layers to Mara, he feels a bit one-note on both offense and defense. There's certainly some value and impact to be had in the player he currently is, but not nearly as much as there would be if he could add a few more wrinkles to his game, which could make him a genuinely versatile, potentially starting-level center.

Offensively, it’s essentially all about spacing the floor. The threat of a 3-point shot would offer so much optionality for Mara both individually and within a team scheme. Unfortunately, for now, he’s pretty far off from this being in his bag.

He’s taken just eight threes across 26 games with Michigan, having hit on just two. Even worse, he hasn’t shown much touch, if any, on the actual attempts, and his flat-out bad free throw conversion at just 49% on decent volume leaves a lot to be desired, and is a legit issue given how much he’s fouled.

On defense, added versatility would mean defending in space, being able to switch. Basically anything that would give him versatility outside of simply defending the paint.

This one feels slightly more attainable, there have been more replicable flashes of him moving his feet and showing the necessary lateral quickness to stay in front of quicker players, but it is still far too inconsistent and certainly years away.

Stretch bigs are going to be a fairly easy counter for Mara in his current state, and the NBA right now is filled with plenty of these, or — even worse — teams willing to simply play small and go five out, which he likely can't capitalize on just yet.

Outlook:

Aday Mara is, very obviously, one of the more unique prospects not just in the 2026 NBA Draft class, but to pass through the draft ranks in some time. 

He has so many unteachable qualities NBA teams look for: size, length, feel for the game. But so much polishing needed across the board on both ends, and a few non-starters for certain schemes.

Still, if an NBA front office feels confident they can add a little shine to him overall, he’s one of the more interesting developmental templates I’ve ever seen.

With that being the case, it wouldn't be stunning if a team reached on him in the late-lottery, but the more likely scenario is that he goes somewhere in the mid-to-late first round, with his floor likely being the start of the second round.

Mara’s a hard player to place in terms of fit, but the Bulls, Warriors and Lakers jump out as teams that could use a 7-foot infusion, even sparingly. 

Range: Mid-first to early-second

Role: Play-Finisher, Drop Big

Impact: Rotation

Swing Skills: Strength, physicality, conditioning, versatility

Best Fits: Bulls, Warriors, Lakers