The Spanish playmaker heads to Las Vegas to showcase his high-IQ game, signaling a potential shift from "draft and stash" prospect to immediate contributor for Dallas.
There was plenty of speculation surrounding Sergio de Larrea when the Dallas Mavericks selected him with the No. 25 pick in the 2026 NBA Draft.
The initial thought was that de Larrea could be a "draft and stash" for Dallas, meaning the Mavericks would allow him to continue developing overseas before eventually bringing him stateside.
While no final decision has been made yet regarding the Valladolid, Spain, native's future, steps are being taken that could indicate de Larrea joining the Mavs as soon as this upcoming season.
READ MORE: Dallas Mavericks 2026 NBA Free Agent Tracker
When Dallas begins summer league competition in Las Vegas, de Larrea will be with them.
Per Isaac Harris of LockedOnMavs, the current plan is for the 20-year-old to compete in Vegas and then he and the franchise will "figure out the future past that."
The Mavs are slated to take on the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies and the Oklahoma City Thunder across their four preliminary games in Vegas.
Before eventually being traded to Dallas, de Larrea was selected at pick No. 25 by the Lakers, who traded the combo guard to the New York Knicks in exchange for the draft rights to Cam Carr.
Upon acquiring his draft rights, the Knicks then sent de Larrea to the Mavs — who traded the rights to Koa Peat to the Phoenix Suns in return.
The day after de Larrea was selected, GM Mike Schmitz provided some insight into the decision-making process.
"We are still working through all of that with Sergio," Schmitz said. "Whether it is next year or the following, to have that level of size and IQ in our program is huge for us. I think we got bigger across all of these different archetypes of players, added more positional size, got tougher and added some IQ as well, and Sergio is a huge part of that."
De Larrea isn't the type of prospect who's going to wow you with highlight dunks or elite athleticism.
Instead, he wins with feel and decision-making. At 6-foot-6, he's comfortable running an offense. He consistently makes the right read out of the pick-and-roll and has developed into a dependable perimeter shooter.
"[De Larrea] is super excited," Schmitz said. "(He is) very excited about the opportunity (to join) the organization. He is actually a Mavs fan at different points of his life growing up, so he shared some of those stories and how thankful he is to be a part of the organization."
Regardless of whether de Larrea cracks Dallas' rotation immediately or spends time developing, the Mavericks ... and Schmitz ... clearly believe they found another intriguing young piece to grow alongside Cooper Flagg.
