The Oklahoma City Thunder took a gamble when they drafted Aday Mara at 12th overall.
In fairness, it’s hard to argue for any others selection at that point in the draft, especially once Morez Johnson Jr. and Yaxel Lendeborg came off the board. At 7’3″ and possessing a 9’9″ standing reach, Mara has the potential to be the big man of the future in Oklahoma City. Just imagining his eventual pairing alongside Chet Holmgren is enough to make mouths water.
But like with any draft prospect, we’re talking purely in hypotheticals here. There’s a portion of the fanbase that won’t be convinced by the Mara pick until he shows he can perform on an NBA court. There are too many questions surrounding his conditioning and his overall viability to make any judgement yet.
Perhaps a strong summer league showing can help ease these concerns. At the very least, Mara will flash his offensive skill-set, with his strong touch around the rim and varied playmaking package shining through in his first pairing of summer league appearances.
But the Thunder’s most daunting question surrounding Mara— whether he’ll be a truly viable NBA defender— can’t be answered in summer league. That’s something that could take multiple seasons to be resolved.
Aday Mara’s NBA upside depends on his defensive abilities, and Summer League won’t provide an answer
Mara has been relatively impressive through his first two appearances in the Salt Lake City Summer League. In his first game, he posted 10 points, three rebounds, and four assists on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor. Although Oklahoma City was blown out of the water by the Memphis Grizzlies in that game, Mara had a couple impressive plays on the offensive end. He then posted 10 points in their matchup with the Atlanta Hawks, shooting 3-of-9 from the field across 23 minutes on the court.
It’s easy to get excited about summer league highlights, especially for recently drafted prospects. Mara will certainly provide some of those before the action comes to an end later this month.
He’s an impressive passer for a big man, and he’s so tall that it will be difficult for defenders to stop him from dominating the paint in these minutes. But the real question about his NBA viability lies in his defense.
Mara is a capable rim-protector, and he’s not completely immobile on that end of the court. But he’s also not truly a switchable defender— any minutes he plays right now will need to be in drop coverage. The next step in his development, beyond refining his offensive game, is becoming less plodding on the court and becoming a more versatile defender.
It’s what’s made Isaiah Hartenstein so integral to the Thunder over these past couple of seasons, and it’s what they need to see out of Mara eventually.
We won’t get a real glimpse of his defensive abilities during summer league. We might not even get one during his rookie season, depending on how minutes are distributed between him and Thomas Sorber.
It’s wise to take everything in summer league with a grain of salt. But when it comes to Mara, that statement is doubly true.
Don’t lean too much into the offensive highlights he’ll put out over the rest of the month, because the real answers on his upside won’t come until we see him with real, challenging NBA minutes under his belt.
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