Dallas Mavericks second-year star Luka Doncic has heavily leaned on the team's trusted veterans, namely JJ Barea, who is the lone remaining piece from the time the Mavs last made the playoffs.

Doncic is coming off winning the Rookie of the Year award, but there is still plenty he could absorb from Barea's wisdom, now in a mentor role this late in his career.

“It's hard work, it's a long season,” Barea told Eric Gomez of ESPN. “We talk about how to take care [of his body], we talk about how to stay positive when things don't go your way after a game, little things like that. The mental side of the game. But we've seen how special Luka is. It's impressive what he's done so far and what he can still do in the future.”

“Off the court, he's helped me a lot,” Doncic said before leaving for Mexico City. “I just like hanging around with him.”

Head coach Rick Carlisle is aware that Barea has a vital role as the elder statesman of this roster, including instilling wisdom on the young Doncic.

“J.J. is our last vestige” from 2011, Carlisle said Wednesday. “That's very important [for Doncic]. In the locker room, our guys know that J.J. has that level of experience. They know that he was once a player who was undrafted and had to work his way into a situation where he could get playing time and eventually he became a starter on an NBA championship team, and that's pretty phenomenal.”

Doncic speaks fluent Spanish after playing in Spain for six years growing up, while Barea, a Puerto Rican native, does as well — making it quite a comfortable dialogue and a strong rapport between two Spanish-speaking Mavericks.