'Make An Impact!' Can Mavs Rookie's EuroLeague Stardom Translate To NBA?

DALLAS - The NBA has spent decades importing shooting from Europe, and the hit rate has been remarkable. Dražen Petrović came over from Croatia and was becoming one of the best shooters in the world before his death in 1993. Peja Stojaković followed and spent years as one of the deadliest marksmen of his era. Bojan Bogdanović built a long career on the same skill.

Dallas knows the value better than anyone, having watched Dirk Nowitzki arrive from Würzburg as a 7-footer with a jumper nobody his size was supposed to have.

The pipeline works in part because European prospects spend their teenage years playing against grown professionals rather than high schoolers. Tarik Biberović was appearing in EuroLeague games at 19, which is a different developmental path from what most American players experience.

He is the latest to make the trip, and he wants everyone to understand he did not come just to say he made it.

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"I didn't come here just to be happy or just to be a part of the team, just to be an NBA player," Biberović said after practice. "That was like one of my first goals when I was in Europe. I never wanted to be the guy who just came in NBA just to say he was in NBA. I came here to make an impact."

That is an unusually direct statement from a 25-year-old rookie trying to carve out minutes on a crowded roster. It also happens to align with what his coach has observed.

Dusty May said Biberović has shown an NBA-level game and has been "probably a little bit further along" than May anticipated when camp opened.

The reason Dallas wanted him is not complicated. The Mavericks shot 34.4% from 3-point range last season, 26th in the league, and that number is the single biggest reason the offense finished 27th overall. Spacing was the problem, and Biberović is a solution the front office identified in Europe.

His résumé there is substantial. Biberović spent last season as a full-time starter for Fenerbahçe, averaging 11.3 points and 3.0 rebounds in roughly 24 minutes per game while shooting 41.9% from 3-point range on more than five attempts per night. He also hit 95.2% of his free throws, which is a useful indicator of touch.

That was not a one-year outlier, either. He shot 43.2% from deep the previous season while helping Fenerbahçe win the 2025 EuroLeague title.

The Turkish league numbers are even better. Biberović averaged 12.6 points while connecting on 49.7% of his 3-point attempts in domestic play, and he won Turkish Cup Final MVP honors after a 28-point, 10-rebound performance in the title game.

He also saved his best for the biggest moments. In five EuroLeague playoff games last spring, Biberović averaged 15.8 points while shooting 52.9% from beyond the arc, including a career-high 26 points on 6-of-8 shooting from 3-point range in Game 1 against Žalgiris.

Those are not developmental numbers. That is a player who was already producing at a high level against serious competition, which is precisely why May's comment about him being ahead of schedule tracks.

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The path to minutes is the complicated part. Dallas has Cooper Flagg, P.J. Washington, Naji Marshall and Zaccharie Risacher among its forwards, while Max Christie occupies the shooting guard spot. Biberović arrives behind all of them on the depth chart.

But shooting has a way of creating opportunity. If Biberović proves he can defend well enough to stay on the floor, a wing who hits 40% from 3-point range becomes difficult to leave in street clothes, particularly on a roster that struggled so badly to space the floor.

He clearly intends to find out. Players who come to the NBA content to have arrived tend to disappear quickly. Biberović said the opposite before the season even started. He did not come to Dallas to make the NBA. He came to make an impact once he got here.