Aday Mara Didn’t Miss A Fucking Shot

Mara came right back the next night and somehow got better. 22 points, six rebounds, two assists, a block, zero turnovers and 10-for-10 from the field in 25 minutes. Add that to the 5-for-5 from his first preseason game and this man started his NBA preseason career 15-for-15 from the field. 😂 That’s stupid. A lot of it came from him understanding where to be, playing off the guards and finishing lobs instead of trying to prove he had 30 moves in the post. Shai looked completely ready too — 17 points on 5-for-5 with three threes, five assists and no turnovers — and Jalen Williams had 16 with six assists. Bennett Stirtz followed his first good game with 20 points and four threes, so OKC’s young guys didn’t just flash once and disappear. Milwaukee still came back and won it, with Myles Turner scoring 19 and Brayden Burries making the big late plays.

And Mara’s second game actually finishes the thought from the first one for me. Now I’m even more interested in the minutes than the shooting percentage. Obviously he is not going 15-for-15 forever, that shit is going to come back to Earth. But if he’s this good as a lob threat next to Shai and Jalen Williams, he doesn’t need post-ups to collect points. They can create the shot for him. That means if his rotation role grows, I’d start looking at rebounds first, then maybe modest points lines, because easy rim attempts can keep his scoring floor alive without him needing heavy usage. The catch is still the same: if the established bigs cut him down to 12 minutes, none of this matters for FanDuel. Mara’s talent has my attention. His minutes are what would make me actually put money behind it.