Aday Mara Scouting Report

Read why the 7'3" Spanish center is a projected lottery pick coming off Michigan's national championship run.

The 7’3” interior extraordinaire from Spain was finally freed from the shackles of UCLA and its head coach Mick Cronin. The results were remarkable as Mara anchored the Michigan Wolverines to their first NCAA title since 1989.

It’s worth noting that Mara didn’t came out of nowhere as he was considered a high-end NBA prospect for quite some time. The way-too-early mocks considered Mara to be a lottery prospect as far back as the 2024 NBA Draft. However, the opportunity really wasn’t there at UCLA. He was often providing impact disproportionate impact to the amount of playing time he was receiving. And it made sense: the world has a very limited amount of players that are as tall as Mara. But somehow, it didn’t come together at UCLA.

So Mara transferred to Michigan, won a title, refined his skills, improved his stamina and decided to go to the NBA riding the momentum of a wildly successful junior year. At the NBA Draft Combine last month, Mara shocked the basketball world posting a 9’9” standing reach, an all-time Combine record which he now shares with Mark Williams. Everyone knew he was long, but maybe not THAT long.

Despite all the accolades and on-court production, moving from UCLA to Michigan proved to be quite a shock to the system, mainly due to a drastic pace adjustment. For a good part of the year, Dusty May’s Wolverines were the fastest team in adjusted pace in the entire country. Coincidence or not, but the fast paced, risk-tolerant environment spiked Mara’s turnovers to a concerning degree: the speed with which Michigan played put a heavy tax on the Spaniard’s hands, agility, balance and coordination. All of a sudden, Mara, as Michigan’s primary defensive play finisher through rebounding and shot blocking, was tasked with throwing outlet passes, often with mixed results.

Again, coincidence or not, Michigan’s pace slowed down somewhat post New Year, some of the defensive rebounding burden was shifted away from Mara and his turnover numbers dropped significantly. This is my biggest qualm with Mara - how does he adjust to the NBA pace and does he have what it takes to play in high leverage situations?

Despite any reservations I may have with Mara, I believe he’s the best big in this year’s draft, and it might not be particularly close. As influential as he was in his limited minutes at UCLA, his year-over-year improvement at Michigan was clear as day. Because of his outlier length, Mara was always a major presence inside and provided a ton of vertical spacing. That, obviously, continued into this year, but Mara’s versatility scoring the ball inside reached new levels: his footwork and touch improvements meant he shot 81.1% at the rim, dunking roughly 1 in 2 of his rim attempts. Mara is one of just six high-major players since 2008 to finish with >80% and 180 attempts at the rim.

Mara’s ceiling is exponentially raised by his passing ability: at his best, Mara is a legitimate playmaking hub to run your offense through. Despite a lanky frame, he has mastered the use of his hips to be an effective screener, especially on hand-offs. Mara will be an excellent playmaker out of various backdoor, horns, zoom and pinch sets. Dusty May’s Michigan has already shown how effective Mara can be in high low actions, both as a passer and a finisher. On the downside, an absence of any sort of reasonable shooting touch is a ceiling capper: Mara was just 58.5% from the line over his 3 year college career, giving him virtually no realistic pathways towards stretching his scoring game outside of the paint.

Mara’s sheer length will make him a highly positive defender, despite any mobility questions you might have. The stats are pretty clear on this one: a major gap between the block (12%) and steal (0.8%) rates is a clear indicator Mara’s defensive impact will be concentrated on the inside. He’s not going to just block shots, but also serve as a major rim deterrent. Michigan’s opponents saw their rim attempts slashed by 2.7 on a per 40 minute basis with Mara on the floor, while their field goal percentage dropped by 5.9%.

Mara won’t be switchable and he’ll primarily defend in drop, but last season he showed flashes of improving defensive footwork to backpedal and block shots. His frame is such that when guarding smaller and quicker players, he can still compensate for losing one or two steps on the dribble drive to block or at least contest a shot at the rim.