Sixers center Adem Bona ‘brings the dog every day’ as he adjusts to life in the NBA

LAS VEGAS — For Adem Bona, this summer has been a fun learning process.

The 76ers’ second-round draft pick is building relationships with teammates and understanding what the coaching staff wants from him.

“I’d say it’s been great,” the center said. “You learn every day. Obviously, the one thing you can control is your energy and your effort. So I bring that every day. I don’t let any situation change that for me.”

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And the Sixers are seeing firsthand how the 6-foot-8, 243-pounder out of UCLA impacts games without scoring.

Bona is tied for fourth in blocked shots in the NBA Summer League with an average of 3.0 per game.

The 21-year-old blocked five shots in Saturday’s 94-81 victory over the Detroit Pistons. He followed with three blocks in Monday’s 97-95 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. And he blocked one shot to go with 10 points and nine rebounds in Tuesday’s 92-90 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Bona also has averages of 8.7 points on 78.6% shooting and 6.7 rebounds through three games here in Sin City.

All this comes after Bona averaged 5.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 1.3 steals, and 3.0 blocks in last week’s Salt Lake City Summer League.

“My goal is to establish my place on the team,” Bona said, “not just the team, but the league. You know, make my presence felt. People will see him and say, ‘Oh, he’s small for a big [man]’ or ‘Maybe his size is, but the heart is not.’

“I bring the dog every day. I don’t take nothing from nobody. So my goal is to establish myself in the league, also the team.”

Bona will head into training camp at third on the depth chart behind 2023 MVP Joel Embiid and two-time All-Star Andre Drummond. As a result, playing time will be hard to come by. However, he could be a situational player who sees minutes when Embiid misses games.

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Whenever he plays, Bona will be determined to make his presence felt.

“I want the [opposing] team to know, ‘He’s going to block my shot. I’m not going in there,’ ’’ he said. “‘He’s going to hit me hard. I’m not going in there.’ ”

That approach helped Bona become a first-team All-Pac 12 performer last season as a UCLA sophomore.

The Nigeria-born player with a Turkish passport also thrives in passing lanes. He averaged 12.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.8 blocks in 2023-24. He was named the Pac-12 defensive player of the year and twice named to the conference’s all-defensive team.

Bona was also named the conference’s freshman of the year and landed on the all-freshman team in 2023. Before that Bona was a McDonald’s All American, regarded as the nation’s 11th-best college prospect in the Class of 2022 as a senior at Prolific Prep in Windsor, Calif.

Not bad for a player who didn’t start basketball until he was 13 years old.

“It’s always been in me,” Bona said of his relentlessness. “I grew up with two older brothers. I grew up playing soccer with my brothers. They’re bigger than me, stronger than me. They didn’t feel bad for me, playing with me. They didn’t make it easy for me.

“I got the [stuff] beaten out of me playing with those guys. So I take the competitiveness from my brothers.”

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The former soccer midfielder has agreed to a four-year, $8 million contract to play basketball. But he’s not complacent. Bona knows he must improve his ballhandling and participates in one-handed catching and passing drills after every practice.

“We are working on my touch, to be able to maneuver the ball, have control of the ball every single time,” Bona said. “So that’s the little things. I say like the buildup, working on the little things, and we’ll get to the bigger stuff, working on the ball, finding open passes to finish in traffic.”