The Mavericks haven’t made the kind of splash that grabs headlines in free agency, but they’ve spent the offseason attacking the problem that dragged them down last year: shooting.
Dallas has added four players through the 2026 NBA Draft and another three via trades in the weeks that followed, and the common thread is obvious. The front office has loaded up on young talent that can stretch the floor, which is exactly what the roster needed around Cooper Flagg after one of the NBA’s worst 3-point shooting seasons.
Last season, only Max Christie and Marvin Bagley III shot better than 40 percent from deep on the 15-man roster. That left Dallas short on spacing and made life harder on Flagg. Masai Ujiri said in his introductory press conference that he wanted to add more shooters around Flagg, and the Mavericks have clearly followed that mandate.
The draft class alone gave Dallas a real boost. In the first round, the Mavericks selected Morez Johnson Jr. and Sergio De Larrea.
De Larrea knocked down more than 40 percent of his 3-pointers last season for Valencia, doing it on 3.3 attempts per game. Johnson Jr. hit 34.3 percent from long range as a sophomore at Michigan, a sharp jump after he didn’t attempt a single 3-pointer during his freshman season at Illinois.
Johnson Jr.’s shooting profile is especially intriguing because his release is smooth, and he showed well as a shooter at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago. If his volume keeps climbing, he has a real path to becoming a floor spacer.
Dallas added another shooter in the second round by trading with the Los Angeles Lakers for the draft rights to Vsevolod Ishchenko, the No. 56 overall pick. The 6-foot-8 wing shot 46.3 percent from three last season for Lokomotiv Kuban in Russia, and he has a reputation for making tough shots both off the dribble and the catch. If he puts together a strong start in Summer League later this week, he could push for a roster spot.
The trade market brought even more help. Dallas acquired Santi Aldama, a 7-foot forward who shot 35 percent from three on 5.0 attempts per game for the Memphis Grizzlies last season. His mobility for his size stands out, and he gives the Mavericks something they’ve long needed: a center-sized player who can space the floor.
The other trade, with the Detroit Pistons for Marcus Sasser, is still not finalized, but it would add another perimeter shooter and scorer. Sasser shot 41.5 percent from three on 2.8 attempts per game last season, and Dallas needed more offense off the bench. He would give them that.
There’s also a quieter move that could end up being one of the most valuable of the summer. In the Aldama trade, the Mavericks also picked up the draft rights to Tarik Biberovic, and all signs point to Dallas signing him after he has spent his career in Europe, aside from one Summer League appearance.
Biberovic might be the purest shooter of the bunch. The 6-foot-6 wing hit 48.9 percent of his 3-pointers on 5.2 attempts per game for Fenerbahce last season. That kind of volume and efficiency is hard to ignore, and he would instantly rank among Dallas’ best shooters if the deal gets done.
Taken together, the Mavericks have given themselves a much better chance to climb out of the league’s shooting basement. After a summer built around spacing, the hope in Dallas is that bottom-tier 3-point shooting is no longer part of the story.
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