When the Sixers and President of Basketball Operations Daryl Morey signed Andre Drummond this past offseason, many Sixers fans and media pundits thought Philadelphia had solved their backup center position for the first time since, well, Andre Drummond.
While the Sixers did technically solve the backup center role for the future this offseason, it wasn’t in the way people thought. The real solution came a few days before the signing was announced when, in the second round of the 2024 NBA Draft, the Sixers took a UCLA big man with the 41st pick in Adem Bona.
Bona entered this season as a developmental prospect who put up solid stats for two UCLA teams, starting 65 games across two seasons. In his sophomore season, he put up 12.4 points and 5.9 rebounds in 33 starts. This was good enough to get Bona’s name called in the second round as an athletic, 6-foot-10-inch lob threat. With Joel Embiid as the starter and Andre Drummond joining the team, the Sixers probably felt like they could take the time to develop Bona to eventually take the torch from Drummond as the future at the backup center position.
What the Sixers didn’t expect was that neither Joel Embiid nor Andre Drummond would even play in half of the games this season. Embiid, as all Sixers fans know, was shut down for the season after only appearing in 19 games, averaging 23.8 points on 44.4% shooting. Drummond appeared in 40 games, but only averaged 18.8 minutes a night. In what appeared to be a lost season for the Sixers, Adem Bona stepped up late in the season to make his presence known.
Bona had a quiet start to the season, playing sparingly throughout 2024. Occasionally, he’d have some games where he found his way onto the court for an extended run, but ultimately, he averaged only 6.6 minutes in 16 games in 2024. Then, as the calendar turned, Bona began to see his playing time go up, averaging 12.5 minutes a night in January. By the time the end of the season rolled around, Bona was a regular in the starting lineup.
Making the most of this opportunity, Bona put on an absolute clinic. Across the last 10 games of the season, Adem Bona averaged 14.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks a game while shooting an insane 72.6% from the field.
During this time, Bona led the Sixers in total rebounds in five games. He also led in blocks, or tied for the lead in blocks, for the Sixers in all ten of these games. In fact, his 2.7 blocks per game led all NBA players in this span, beating out the likes of Myles Turner and Anthony Davis. Couple that with his efficient scoring and above-the-rim play style, and come next season, Bona could play an important role in any success the Sixers may have.
The former UCLA Bruin wasn’t just stat padding at the end of the season either but was making his teammates better. Players like Jared Butler, Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Kelly Oubre Jr. performed better on offense when sharing the court with Bona.
For Jared Butler, his true shooting percentage increases by 15% when he shares the floor with Bona, jumping from 46.4% to 61.3%. His three-point percentage also has a significant increase of 14% when he’s sharing the floor with Bona, going from 41.4% with Bona to 27.6% without him. For Dowtin Jr. and Kelly Oubre Jr., the jump isn’t quite as significant, but still shows a positive uptick in true shooting percentage for both players.
Dowtin’s increases by 6% and Oubre’s increases by 5%. This may seem like not that big of a deal on the surface, but Bona has shown, in a very limited sample, that he can help make this second unit run a lot cleaner than we have seen in the past.
While Bona is still limited and a bit raw as a prospect, the promise he showed at the tail end of the season should make him someone that Nick Nurse and the Sixers can rely on to help stabilize the always tricky second unit. Bona’s ability to complement other players should make fans extremely excited.
While he probably isn’t going to be the next transcendent superstar for the MVP, his efficient and consistent impact is something that the Sixers should not undervalue when looking at how they want to build rotations for next season.
