Sergio De Larrea’s path to Dallas started long before the Mavericks signed him to a four-year, $16.3 million contract. The 20-year-old guard grew up watching Luka Doncic and, as he put it, that was enough to turn him into a Mavericks fan early on.
“I saw Luka when he came from Madrid to here and it was for me like my idol in the young era. For that reason, I was a Maverick fan a long time ago,” De Larrea said after practice on Monday.
That connection makes the rookie’s arrival in Dallas feel a little more personal, even if the reunion he once might have dreamed about is no longer possible. Dončić was only in his early NBA years when De Larrea was 12, but the former Mavericks cornerstone has since been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers, meaning the rookie won’t get to share the floor with the player who helped shape his fandom.
Dallas had briefly faced speculation that it might keep De Larrea in Europe as a stash prospect, but the team moved quickly to end that idea by bringing him over right away. He’ll begin his NBA journey now, not later.
And this isn’t just a feel-good story about a kid who loved the team and ended up in its uniform. De Larrea arrives with real credentials after a standout season with Valencia Basket in Spain’s Liga ACB. He earned the 2026 Liga ACB Best Young Player award and played a major part in Valencia’s championship run, including the win over Barcelona.
He’s already been on the practice floor with Dallas, and his next step is set for the 2026 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. De Larrea is expected to make his first appearance on Thursday when the Mavericks take on the Golden State Warriors.
In Other News...
Mavericks Finally Land Long-Stashed Shooter After One Major Hurdle
Tarik Biberovic is finally on the verge of making the move the Mavericks have had his rights stashed for, with the 24-year-old wing informing Fenerbahce that he will leave the EuroLeague to sign in Dallas. The deal is expected to run two years and carry a second-year team option, a tidy bit of business for a team still looking to add shooting and long-term flexibility around its core.
The path to getting it done was not simple, though, and the timing mattered. Biberovic had to clear an opt-out deadline tied to his Fenerbahce contract, and the Mavericks also had to navigate the buyout process under NBA rules before the signing could become official. For Dallas, it is the kind of overseas holdover resolution that can quietly matter, especially when a player has been on the radar long enough to become part of the franchises future planning. [Read more 🡒]
Mavericks May Have Finally Fixed The Problem Around Cooper Flagg
The Mavericks spent the offseason attacking the same flaw that showed up too often last year: too many lineups that could not punish defenses from the perimeter. Through the 2026 draft and a series of trades, Dallas has added a cluster of players who at least bring shooting into the conversation, including Morez Johnson Jr., Sergio De Larrea and the draft rights to Vsevolod Ishchenko, while also bringing in Santi Aldama and Marcus Sasser to help reshape the spacing around Cooper Flagg.
Aldama is the most intriguing of the bunch because he gives Dallas a 7-foot forward who can stretch the floor, and Sasser offers another backcourt option who can score and shoot from deep. The bigger question now is how much of this shooting makeover actually sticks once the roster is finalized, because the Mavericks still have one more move in the pipeline that could determine whether this really is the fix they were looking for. [Read more 🡒]
Lakers Are Chasing Luka's Old Mavs Formula For Better Or Worse
The Lakers latest roster-building push has a familiar feel for anyone who watched Luka Doncic operate in Dallas, because the pieces around him are starting to resemble the kind of setup the Mavericks used in 2024. The comparison is obvious in the way Los Angeles is trying to match up key positions and give Doncic the same sort of structural support that helped Dallas reach the Finals, even if the exact names and fit are not identical.
But there is a reason this kind of copycat approach comes with caution attached. Dallas version of the formula did not end with a championship, and the Lakers still have to answer the same kind of roster questions that can make or break a contender, especially on the wing where a dependable perimeter defender remains a major need. For Los Angeles, the challenge is not just looking like the Mavericks did, but proving the blueprint can actually take a team all the way. [Read more 🡒]