Aday Mara was a frequent mock target of the Charlotte Hornets early in the offseason, but he seems to have climbed up out of the Hornets range on Internet draft boards. It’s easy to understand the appeal. He’s a gargantuan human whose size alone is almost enough to make him a coveted NBA prospect. But he adds some really good feel for the game and a unique skill set for a big that makes him one of the more unique prospects we’ve seen in the draft in some time.
Measurements
Height: 7’3″
Weight: 259 pounds
Wingspan: 7’6″
Standing reach: 9’9″
Standing vertical: 24″
Max vertical: 28″
Strengths
Superhuman size, paint presence, passing
Mara’s biggest selling point is literally the biggest selling point. He’s the biggest prospect in this draft class and is an exceptionally large human being, even by NBA standards. He’ll be tied for the third tallest player in the league and has a standing reach that matches Rudy Gobert’s. Even in the current pace and space era of the NBA, players of his size are pretty likely bets to at least be usable players. At its core, basketball is still really hard to play against when the other player is significantly taller than you.
Mara is able to utilize that size in the ways you’d want him to. He was an elite rim protector, blocking 4.0 shots per 36 minutes. Perhaps more importantly, he had the college equivalent of the “Wemby effect.” When he was on the floor, teams didn’t attempt shots near the basket nearly as often. They settled for more jumpers, and when they did dare venture into the lane, their shooting percentages fell off a cliff. Many attempts were in that awkward paint-but-not-restricted-area space, and teams converted those looks at an absurdly low rate with Mara patrolling the paint. On offense, Mara’s got soft touch at the rim and does a good job keeping the ball high when he catches it. He doesn’t have an advanced scoring package by any means, but he’s able to make the simple catch and finish plays. He’s also a huge target for lobs at the rim.
The thing that makes Mara so unique and separates him from other jumbo center prospects is his passing ability. He functioned as a facilitator out of the post and out on the perimeter as part of Michigan’s offense. He can dwell with the ball waiting for something to happen at times, but that can work to his benefit sometimes too. He loves throwing wrap around passes on the interior, dropping passes off to cutters, and whipping passes past the ears of defenders who don’t see the ball. He dished a handful of behind the back passes and generally has a pretty deep highlight reel of his play making. He does it all from a standstill, but that is what the Hornets like. He has exactly the kind of floor awareness that would unlock more layers to the Hornets dribble handoff game. He also threw a number of touchdown passes last season, which also plays into the hands of a Hornets team that likes to hunt fast break run outs.
Question Marks
Mobility, shooting touch
Even if you knew nothing about Mara as a prospect, you could probably guess what the 7’3″ centers biggest question marks were. The first is his mobility, which limits his defensive versatility. He’s high hipped and heavy footed. It simply looks like it’s a struggle for him to stop and start and change directions. You probably don’t want your seven footer to be a switch guy regardless of whether or not they could, but there are still other ways where Mara’s mobility could cause problems. He’ll have to guard pick and rolls almost exclusively in drop coverage, which could mean struggles against really good pull-up shooters or pick and pop bigs, not unlike what we saw with Ryan Kalkbrenner at times this past season. He also can get displaced a little bit by stronger bigs that go at his chest and might struggle with some of the league’s more physical and aggressive offensive rebounders. I’ve also read some concerns about Mara’s ability to play extended minutes.
With how deft a passer Mara is, you’d kind of expect at least of hint of shooting touch, but that hasn’t been the case. He shot 58.5% from the free throw line over three collegiate seasons, and the percentage actually went down each season, albeit on increasingly large sample sizes. He did flirt with a 3-point shot at Michigan. He attempted 10 and made three, which is progress from the zero he took in his first two years but not something you’re banking on translating to the NBA. He has a slow load up to his shot and doesn’t look natural with it at all. It’s fair to wonder if some of the passing gets blunted a bit by the fact that teams will back off into the paint if he holds the ball at the elbows or the top of the key.
Overview
Mara isn’t a perfect prospect, but he does have a couple of things that the Hornets value highly. The team has been widely reported to be looking for more size, and they can’t do any better than Mara in that regard. They also run a lot of offense through their center, hence the reported interest in Domantas Sabonis. Mara brings a similar brand of passing prowess at the five spot. There are some blemishes on Mara’s game you have to live with it, but his rim protection, vertical spacing, and passing all check boxes that would push the Hornets quite a ways forward should Mara land in Charlotte and continue to develop at the rate in which he did in college.
