{"id":378783,"date":"2026-07-19T16:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378783\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T16:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T16:17:17","slug":"dallas-mavericks-rookie-teased-as-nba-summer-leagues-best-passer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/378783\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Mavericks Rookie Teased As NBA Summer League&#8217;s Best Passer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6x\">The Dallas Mavericks are moving towards the next phase of the offseason following a week in Las Vegas for the 2026 NBA Summer League.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"70\">The five exhibition games provided the Mavericks with an opportunity to evaluate their incoming draft picks and younger members of the roster, such as second-year guard Ryan Nembhard.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">Of the four selections last month, there&#8217;s a ton of intrigue surrounding Sergio De Larrea, and not just because he&#8217;s an international prospect like Luka Doncic. After playing professionally since he was 17, De Larrea already has experience under his belt, even if the transition to the NBA will be a little different.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">De Larrea put his skills on display at the summer league despite wrapping up a Liga ACB championship run with Valencia Basket less than four weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Coming out of Vegas, it&#8217;s evident that the Mavericks could use a player who can facilitate like De Larrea, though scoring is still a work in progress.<\/p>\n<p>Sergio De Larrea Named Best Passer At NBA Summer League<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/01kxwm8syqcshvkw1md5.png\" alt=\"Sergio De Larrea\" title=\"Sergio De Larrea\" width=\"360\" height=\"360\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7m\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dallas Mavericks\/Twitter<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">De Larrea emerged as a passer during the back half of Dallas&#8217; slate. In his first two appearances, he totaled 9 assists to 5 turnovers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">Thrown into more ball-handling duties against the Memphis Grizzlies, De Larrea responded with a summer league franchise record 12 assists. He followed that up with an even better performance, dropping 14 dimes to just 3 turnovers in a win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">Overall, De Larrea averaged 8.8 assists to 4 turnovers over his four outings. He showed off a legitimate ability to command an offense, connecting on some creative passes to set other players up for easy buckets.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">De Larrea did enough to be deemed the best passer in the Sin City this summer, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7436768\/2026\/07\/17\/nba-summer-league-scouting-dybantsa-peterson-wilson\/?source=athletic_targeted_email&amp;source=athletic_targeted_email&amp;campaign=18078211&amp;userId=4522515\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Athletic&#8217;s Sam Vecenie<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">&#8220;The best passer I saw at summer league was Mavs guard\u00a0Sergio de Larrea, the 25th pick from Spain who has a long track record of playing against professional competition,&#8221; Vecenie wrote. &#8220;He was sharp and timely with the ball in his hands, making the right reads at the right times consistently.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"85\">&#8220;I also appreciated the degree of creativity we saw from him,&#8221; Vecenie continued. &#8220;He used eye manipulation at an expert level to create open looks for his teammates, both in half-court settings and transition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"88\">For a Mavericks team that struggled to generate effortless offense a season ago, the addition of De Larrea might be a welcome sight. He can help take some of the pressure off Cooper Flagg.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">It is going to be necessary for De Larrea to find a rhythm as a shooter. He only connected on 27.3% of his field goal attempts and 20% of his three-pointers this summer. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">That includes a 3\/14 outing in the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers and 1\/8 in the win over the Thunder.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8h\">The good news is that De Larrea shot 87.5% from the free-throw line, which is typically a sign of good mechanics, and that he can improve his jumper over time.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8k\">Plus, the Mavericks have the perfect mentor on the roster with All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving expected to return at the beginning of the 2026-27 season.<\/p>\n<p>Who Did The Mavericks Select In The 2026 NBA Draft?<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-19\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8q\">No. 9\u00a0&#8211; Morez Johnson, Forward, Michigan<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-20\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8t\">No. 25 &#8211; Sergio De Larrea, Forward, Valencia Basket<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-21\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8w\">No. 48 &#8211; Tobi Lawal, Forward, Virginia Tech<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-22\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8z\">No. 56 &#8211; Vsevolod Ishchenko, Guard, Lokomotiv Kuban<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-23\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"92\">Sign up to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/mavericks\/onsi\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">free newsletter<\/a> and follow us on <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/maverickssi?s=21&amp;t=nyCeWGVWMsSpULqWCupqGA\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a> for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Mavericks are moving towards the next phase of the offseason following a week in Las Vegas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-378783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}