A turn of the hips shows de Larrea the scale of his Dallas adjustment

After Monday’s scrimmages, Willie Green worked with Sergio de Larrea on turning his hips toward the basket after missed jumpers, according to Ron Harrod Jr. of ALLCITY DLLS. It was a small correction with a useful message about an NBA rookie’s adjustment: knowing how to play quickly does not settle every detail of the shot at the end.

Dallas selected de Larrea 25th in this year’s draft. His prior experience gives him a foundation, while the reported work with the Mavericks assistant identifies something specific to refine. The task is to make useful skills hold up across different opponents and situations, rather than assume that speed and size will translate without attention to the mechanics.

The correction concerns body position. That makes it more actionable than a general request to shoot better: the rookie has something particular to attend to on the next repetition. Whether the adjustment helps consistently will have to be tested through further work. Its value as coaching is that it connects an observed miss with a specific change the player can try.

Those demands are already showing up in de Larrea’s camp work. Ron Harrod Jr. of ALLCITY DLLS reported that the rookie has been practicing pick-and-rolls, pull-up shots against centers and jumpers after coming off screens. Each drill asks for a slightly different answer.

A pick-and-roll can require him to read the coverage before the window closes. A pull-up against a center can reward his speed and space, while a shot off a screen tests whether his feet and hips arrive organized enough to shoot immediately.

The last part is especially relevant to a 6-foot-6 guard. Size gives de Larrea options, but it does not automatically solve the problem of smaller defenders. Harrod reported that smaller opponents bothered him during summer league.

That observation should be treated as a matchup question, not a verdict. A taller ballhandler can shoot over a shorter player, but the smaller defender may get underneath his dribble, crowd his preferred route or force him to start the possession earlier than he wants.

Dusty May wants Dallas to play quickly. De Larrea described the pace as higher than at Valencia, while saying the adjustment had been relatively straightforward because his former club also played fast. That experience is useful preparation. It does not remove the need to make a sound decision when a new opponent changes the space available.

The drills therefore address different parts of the same challenge. Can he recognize an opening, organize his movement and use the skill before the opening disappears? A player who understands the desired pace still has to complete those steps. Green’s specific correction fits within that larger learning process without requiring a grand verdict on the rookie after one practice.

The rookie is also drawing on prior familiarity. He has experience with Santi Aldama through friendship and national-team basketball, and Aldama is entering his sixth NBA season with playoff experience. That background may help de Larrea understand some of the adjustment, but it cannot replace the repetitions happening in Dallas’ own terminology and spacing.

A teammate can offer context; the floor still demands a decision from the ballhandler.

Those repetitions also give Dallas something concrete to assess when practice resumes Wednesday after Tuesday’s scheduled day off. The staff can return to the same situations, vary the pressure and see whether the instruction holds. That is a more useful early-camp test than treating every made shot as proof of readiness or every miss as evidence of a problem.

One correction will not complete de Larrea’s adjustment. It can, however, make the next attempt more purposeful. The rookie’s progress will depend on how often a clear instruction becomes a usable response when the possession stops looking like a drill.

Sources

ALLCITY DLLS: Monday practice

Dallas Sports Journal: Johnson update