Rookie Sixers center Adem Bona reportedly agrees to 4-year contract

Rookie Sixers center Adem Bona reportedly agrees to 4-year contract originally appeared in NBC Sports Philadelphia

Big rookie Adem Bona is now fully linked to the Sixers.

The 41st overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft agreed to sign a four-year contract worth $8 million, Atlético’s Shams Charania reported.

The NBA Second Round Pick Exception allows teams to sign second-round players without affecting their salary cap prospects. In the second round exception, the final season of a four-year contract is a team option.

Bona won Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors as a sophomore at UCLA and averaged 12.4 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.8 blocks.

He has been outstanding defensively in his first four summer league appearances for the Sixers, running all over the place and hunting for blocked shots. Bona’s nine blocks in the Sixers’ three games in Utah led the Salt Lake City Summer League. He rejected five more during the team’s victory Saturday night against the Pistons in Las Vegas.

“One of the things I would love to show is being able to do everything defensively – on the ball, in the pick-and-roll, in the switch.” Bona said in his introductory press conference. “That’s something I would love to show in my rookie year. … Offensively, being able to come out in the pick-and-roll and play fast, which is one of my strengths.”

The other two focus on Sixers lineup are seven-time All-Star Joel Embiid and exceptional veteran rebounder Andre Drummond.

Bona, 21, believes being Embiid’s teammate will help him figure out what works for him at the NBA level.

“Playing against him, facing him every day, it will be difficult for me,” he said. “And also, it will be a learning process for me. Being able to learn from such an incredible player will be a really good step for me in my career.”