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Sergio De Larrea was chosen by the Knicks in the NBA draft

The New York Knicks entered Tuesday night’s NBA draft with a problem: They had some players they liked at No. 24, as well as with the first pick in the second round at No. 31, but they’re also dealing with a second-apron luxury tax problem. They’ve got only about $15 million to work with under that apron, and team owner James Dolan made it clear in an appearance on WFAN last week that he would not go over the second apron, even to keep the championship roster intact. That’s where Sergio De Larrea comes in.

Yes, De Larrea is talented. But he has some added value for the Knicks–he is from Spain and has signaled a willingness to stay overseas for a year before he comes to the NBA.

So, after the Knicks first traded down from the No. 24 spot to No. 25, with the Lakers, they then continued to seek a deal that would unload the pick altogether. Failing that, the Knicks went with plan B: draft De Larrea. The Knicks are not saying they’ll stash him overseas for certain, but that would be the sensible plan as the team tries to juggle its payroll going forward.

Sergio De Larrea Could Stay Overseas

What kind of player will the Knicks be getting, sooner or later, in De Larrea? He is 6-foot-6 and 20 years old, and has been playing for Valencia of the Spanish League–arguably the second-best league on the planet–since 2022, and played 18.3 minutes in 28 league games this season.  He averaged 9.7 points and 3.7 assists on the season, and made an impressive 40.7% of his 3-pointers.

As Sam Vecenie of The Athletic wrote in his scouting report on De Larrea, there is some good and some not-so-good there.

He noted: “De Larrea is a skilled player with a high basketball IQ and those are the kind of players I tend to value highly. Indeed, if someone wanted to take a flyer late in the first round on him, I would understand it.  He can shoot and I love the way he sees the game as a passer or playmaker. But … I’m not sure he can be anything more than a secondary playmaker in the NBA.”

Knicks ‘Cannot Go Into the Second Apron’

Dolan last week told WFAN that the Knicks, “cannot go into the second apron.”

He added: “I don’t know if we’ll be able to. We’re willing to stretch, but there’s certain things in the NBA that you’d have to be suicidal to do. One of them is the second apron.”

Again, with only about $15 million of space under that limit, the Knicks would be handcuffed in a significant way. The conventional wisdom is that a team in one of the NBA’s biggest markets would shell out to keep its roster together after a title win. But Dolan is … not conventional.

With Mitchell Robinson likely to cost more than $20 million annually in free agency, Landry Shamet more than $10 million and Jose Alvarado at least $4.5 million. the chances of bringing back the whole crew are nil, if Dolan sticks with his second-apron edict