UCLA lands 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara from Spain: Why he’s a potential

UCLA signed Aday Mara, a 7-foot-3 center from Spain on Thursday, the school announced. Here’s what you need to know:

• Mara is projected to be a potential lottery pick in the upcoming 2024 NBA Draft.
• During Spain’s second-place finish at the FIBA U18 European Championships in Serbia, Mara averaged 14.0 points, 9.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.7 blocks.
• Mara becomes the seventh incoming player to join the Bruins’ program for the 2023-24 season, including six freshmen.
• UCLA finished 31-6 last season before falling to Gonzaga in the Sweet Sixteen.

The Athletic’s instant analysis:

Why is this such a big pick-up for UCLA?

Mara is one of the best young players in Europe right now. A 7-foot-3 center with tremendous touch and great footwork on the block, the 18-year-old profiles extremely well in a college basketball environment. He’ll have a significant size advantage over almost everyone in the Pac-12, and will be an awesome bail-out option for the Bruins to throw the ball down to him on the block and let him score.

From an experience perspective, Mara has already shown he can play at a level above college basketball, having earned a rotation spot in the Spanish ACB league last season with Zaragoza off the bench. He averaged 5.3 points and 3.3 rebounds while blocking about one shot in 11 minutes of action per game. Then, he went over to Serbia and played for Spain in the U18 European Championships and was one of the best players there, winning All-Tournament honors. Scouts who were at the event noted that Mara looked like a potential first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. — Vecenie

How does he fit at UCLA?

This is the most fascinating part. Mara’s best skill is his ability to score on the block, but his second-best skill is actually his passing ability. Mara is an unbelievable passer for a big on the low block or in the mid-post, finding cutters and kickouts all over the place and using his length and creativity to find unique angles. Having said that, Bruins coach Mick Cronin has never actually had a big man that passes like this. He’s never had a center post anything over a 12 percent assist rate even going back to Cincinnati. The Bruins should be able to utilize Mara as a hub of their offense both with his scoring and passing ability, but it’s just not something Cronin has really done before.

Cronin doesn’t get nearly enough credit for playing to the personnel he has, so the best bet is on him figuring out how to utilize him on offense to his fullest potential. But it’ll be interesting to see how that actually plays out. The same goes on defense, where Mara’s feet aren’t exactly the fleetest at 7-foot-3. My bet is that we see UCLA end up playing a solid amount of zone defense this year around him in the 20-to-25 minutes he’s on the court. — Vecenie

Why is Mara a potential 2024 NBA Draft first-round pick?

Mara is a big man that doesn’t exactly have awesome quickness, which isn’t an archetype that NBA…