Sergio De Larrea Is Likely the Best Spanish Point Guard Prospect of This Era

In the golden generation of Spanish basketball, they had a backcourt rotation that featured the likes of Jose Calderon, Ricky Rubio, Sergio Llull, Sergio Rodriguez, and others who often outclassed every other international backcourt besides Team USA. But at the 2024 Olympics, Spain was leaning on naturalized Lorenzo Borwn, geriatric Llull, and Barcelona rotation player Dario Brizuela. The drop in quality has been significant, but there is hope.

Juan Nunez was selected with the 36th pick of the 2024 NBA Draft and had his rights traded to the San Antonio Spurs after an impressive season with the German club Ratiopharm Ulm. He is now stashed with EuroLeague club Barcelona. In the 2025 NBA Draft, Mario Saint-Supery and Sergio de Larrea are both seen as prospects who could hear their name called in the second round. Among these three, de Larrea stands out as the prospect with the most potential.

The first reason is simple physical advantages. At 6-foot-5, de Larrea is taller than Nunez, who is 6-foot-4, and Saint-Super,y who is 6-foot-3. Those differences may seem marginal, but when you watch the three of them play, de Larrea has a somewhat obvious physical advantage against a good portion of guards he matches up with overseas, while Nunez and Saint-Supery have both looked average against their counterparts.

De Larrea is also quicker, especially compared to Nunez. He has a notably better first step and regularly creates more separation against his opponents, which, alongside his size advantage, gives him a much higher ceiling as a scorer than the likes of Nunez and Saint-Supery. De Larrea has a greater skillset, too. He has a tighter handle with the ball and is more adept at using his handle to create for himself. He is less dependent on ball screens to gain an advantage, and he’s a considerably better three-point shooter than Nunez and Saint-Supery.

Now, Nunez is definitely the best pick-and-roll operator out of the three of them. He’s a better passer in the two-man game and has more repetitions at the professional level than de Larrea and Saint-Supery because of the time he spent with Ulm in Germany, where he was trusted to be their primary ballhandler.

Overall, that bodes well for de Larrea and Spanish basketball’s future. By playing with Valencia, de Larrea has had far more experience and, thus, a much greater off-ball skillset than Nunez and Saint-Supery. Valencia is arguably the most talented roster outside of EuroLeague and has more talent than a handful of EuroLeague teams. De Larrea shares the court with the likes of Chris Jones, Jean Montero, and Stefan Jovic. Three high-level ballhandlers in their own right who push de Larrea into more of a secondary ballhandler role.

This means de Larrea will be able to offer more on the offensive end in the NBA because, with his size, he could take an off-ball role next to other primary ballhandlers and space the floor or offer a secondary pick-and-roll threat as needed. For Spanish basketball’s future, he could do the same next to Nunez.

De Larrea will also only be 19 years old for the 2025 NBA Draft. He is young and just beginning to blossom into a role-player for Valencia this season. It feels likely that he is a draft and stash, just like Nunez, and spends at least one more season growing overseas with Valencia. Depending on how Valencia’s roster shakes up in the summer of 2025, de Larrea could be in a larger role next season and thus give us a glimpse of how he looks with more on-ball responsibility. If he impresses, he'll potentially be a steal for whatever team selects him this June.

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