{"id":2007494,"date":"2026-06-24T01:26:59","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2007494"},"modified":"2026-06-24T01:26:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T22:26:59","slug":"aday-mara-selected-by-the-oklahoma-city-thunder-with-the-no-12-pick-in-the-2026-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2007494","title":{"rendered":"Aday Mara selected by the Oklahoma City Thunder with the No. 12 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Athletic has\u00a0live coverage<\/a> of the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Aday Mara with the No. 12 pick on Tuesday in the NBA Draft. Mara averaged 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.6 blocks in his one season with national champion Michigan.<\/p>\n

Mara is massive, even for an NBA center, measuring at 7 feet 3 without shoes with a 7-foot-6 wingspan and a 9-foot-9 standing reach at the combine. Those measurements are elite, even among the supergiants in the NBA. Mara has also done a good job adding strength throughout his career and came to the combine at 255 pounds. His superpower is his elite basketball IQ. It\u2019s exceedingly rare to find a player this tall who has developed a remarkable feel for the game. He knows exactly where he\u2019s supposed to be at all times from a spacing perspective and has an innate feel for how to find teammates as a passer. Mara\u2019s an elite playmaker for others at the center position, a creative passer with terrific vision and a sharp mindset for how to get his teammates the ball.<\/p>\n

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Mara hasn\u2019t shown that he can play 30 minutes per night as an NBA starter; he averaged just about 23 minutes with the Wolverines, and struggled later in longer rotations when he was out there for more time than he expected.<\/p>\n

Sam Vecenie\u2019s draft guide summary<\/h2>\n

Mara is a polarizing prospect simply because you have to play a very specific scheme and structure with him. You have to be willing to play in drop coverage, and to get the most out of him on offense, you need to be willing to lean into his special passing ability from the top of the court or on the block. There will be teams that aren\u2019t interested in playing that way. But if you\u2019re comfortable with playing such a style, Mara is a terrific get.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019s a great finisher around the rim because of his touch and size. His passing ability is sublime, and his rim protection is exceedingly valuable. Yes, he needs to get in better shape and move his feet better so he can run out rotations and games. But it\u2019s really hard to find bigs who are this multiskilled and have this type of basketball IQ. I have him as a late lottery pick, even with those flaws. Yes, there will be matchups that can exploit him and potentially play him off the court.<\/p>\n

But by and large, Mara has the look of a starting NBA center with the floor of a backup if he doesn\u2019t improve upon his weaknesses. Barring injury, it\u2019s hard for me to see how he\u2019s not at least a useful NBA\u00a0player.<\/p>\n

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Overall<\/span> 13<\/span><\/span> Big<\/span> 3<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

Aday Mara<\/span><\/span> Michigan<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n

A special passer at 7-foot-3 who finishes efficiently and protects the rim.<\/p>\n

Read full profile \u203a<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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John Hollinger\u2019s analysis<\/h2>\n

Mara came to UCLA as a freshman in 2023 with a lot of buzz but failed to gain much immediate traction, with his first name accurately reflecting how long it took him to get down the floor.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s come a long way since, playing a huge role in Michigan\u2019s run to the national title. Mara\u2019s size makes him a useful rim-runner, but he also maximizes his offensive impact with great short-range touch on hook shots and floaters. He has a nice feel for passing out of the block and knows how to feel pressure on his back and spin away from it to get to this shot.<\/p>\n

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Mara is pretty slow on the perimeter and likely will be much more comfortable in drop coverage but commands the lane and posted a 12.0 percent block rate without being particularly foul-prone.<\/p>\n

His other big issue is shooting; he has touch, but his form from the perimeter is still a work in progress. Mara shot 56.4 percent from the line last season and 58.5 percent for his college career.<\/p>\n

David Aldridge\u2019s draft confidential<\/h2>\n

Western Conference scout No. 1:<\/strong> He\u2019s built like Chet Holmgren \u2014 very narrow shoulders, not going to have much bulk. But he\u2019s 7-3, and he has a 7-6 wingspan. He\u2019s going to be in front of that rim. But he\u2019s very slender. \u2026 But, he\u2019s going to be very good. He\u2019s got a 9-9 standing reach. He\u2019s an inch below the rim standing straight up. So there\u2019s a value to that kind of length and size. He\u2019s got excellent footwork, great touch. You can actually throw him into the post a little bit. If you put him in there on a steady diet, they\u2019re gonna beat on him, which is not good for him. But flash post, catch it, he\u2019ll turn around and score. He\u2019s got enough dexterity to catch a lob.<\/p>\n

College assistant coach No. 3 (his team played Michigan):\u00a0<\/strong>I love this kid. I think he\u2019s going to get better and better and better. Inline (out-of-bounds) plays, he guards the inbounders. It\u2019s hard to score against them out of bounds. This guy doesn\u2019t just stand there; he\u2019s doing jumping jacks and things like that. He carried them in the (Big Ten) tournament and many of the NCAA games, because they started to go, they found something. They would run a play and throw the ball to him in the post. And he\u2019s starting to get very accomplished with either hand. And when you doubled, they\u2019re diving Yaxel (Lendeborg) or (Morez) Johnson. When they were at their best was when they were posting Mara. I don\u2019t know him. I know he plays with a lot of energy; he\u2019s always excited, he\u2019s talkative. I think he\u2019s confident in his own ability. He came out after the game and cheered them on. It said something.<\/p>\n

This story will be updated.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has\u00a0live coverage of the 2026 NBA Draft. The Oklahoma City Thunder selected Aday Mara with the No. 12 pick on Tuesday in the NBA Draft. Mara averaged 12.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.6 blocks in his one season with national champion Michigan. Mara is massive, even for an NBA center, measuring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2007494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2007494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2007494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2007494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2007494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2007494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}