{"id":13234,"date":"2025-10-21T02:59:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/13234\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T02:59:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:59:13","slug":"p-j-washington-embracing-whatever-role-mavericks-jason-kidd-throw-at-him-this-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/13234\/","title":{"rendered":"P.J. Washington embracing whatever role Mavericks, Jason Kidd throw at him this season"},"content":{"rendered":"

P.J. Washington Jr. started in 56 of his 57 appearances last season. During his roughly 1\u00bd seasons as a Maverick<\/a> he\u2019s started 84 of 86 games.<\/p>\n

Yet when the Mavericks host San Antonio in both teams\u2019 season opener Wednesday night, Washington might well be asked to come off the bench. If not Wednesday, it seems likely he\u2019ll be a bench player at some point this season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what happened in two of Dallas\u2019 four preseason games, but if the prospect of a new role bothers him in any way, he sure had a convincing poker face after practice Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just coming in and trying to win, doing everything I can to be successful and to help my teammates be in great positions to win,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it doesn\u2019t matter if I\u2019m starting to come off the bench. For me it\u2019s all about winning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

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Washington, 27, probably will always be a Mavericks fan favorite because he grew up in Frisco and because he famously stood on business during Dallas\u2019 run to the 2024 NBA Finals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This offseason, quietly, Washington became a testament to the culture that coach Jason Kidd and general manager Nico Harrison have attempted to build.<\/p>\n

Washington and center Daniel Gafford would be guaranteed of starting on many NBA teams, yet facing the possibility of coming off the bench this season, Gafford in June signed a three-year $54 million extension<\/a> and Washington in September signed a four-year, $90 million extension<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, Kidd was unwilling to reveal whether No. 1 overall draft pick Cooper Flagg will start Wednesday night at point guard or small forward. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see,\u201d Kidd said. Asked whether he hasn\u2019t decided or just won\u2019t say, Kidd said coyly: \u201cBoth.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Flagg starts at point guard, Washington would start at small forward. If Flagg starts at small forward, that would entail Washington coming off the bench.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that from Day One when we got him in the trade,\u201d Kidd said, alluding to the Feb. 8, 2024 deal that brought Washington from Charlotte.<\/p>\n

\u201cAsk him to guard the point guard. Ask him to guard the five. He\u2019s a team player. He\u2019s a pro. He\u2019s all about winning. So ask him to come off the bench or starting, he\u2019s [about] whatever the team needs. We\u2019re lucky to have someone like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second time in Washington\u2019s relatively short Dallas tenure that he\u2019s been asked to potentially make a playing concession.<\/p>\n

For most of his 390-game NBA career, of which he has started 320 times, Washington primarily has played power forward \u2014 75% of the time, according to basketballreference.com<\/a>\u2019s year-by-year estimates.<\/p>\n

Prior to last season Washington had never played more than 3% of his minutes at small forward, but last year 12% of his minutes were at that position. Most of that occurred after Anthony Davis arrived in the shocking Feb. 1 trade of Luka Doncic to the Lakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Mavericks\u2019 season collapsed beneath an avalanche of injuries, the May 12 NBA Draft Lottery shockingly brought another \u201cmove over, P.J.\u201d moment: Despite 1.8% odds, Dallas won the lottery and the ability to draft 6-foot-9 Flagg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet when Flagg visited Dallas before the June draft, Washington was among half-a-dozen Mavericks veterans who took the 18-year-old out to dinner<\/a>. The following day, as they watched Flagg work out for about 75 minutes, Harrison recalled this conversation with Washington.<\/p>\n

Harrison: \u201cHey, P.J., you think you guys can play together?\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington: \u201cOh, yeah, we can play together.\u201d<\/p>\n

If anything, playing with Flagg during training camp and in preseason games has only heightened Washington\u2019s enthusiasm. Here\u2019s his evaluation of Flagg as a point guard, though in reality Kidd says Flagg would be more of a point-forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust so much versatility,\u201d Washington said. \u201cHe can do pretty much everything on the offensive end. Obviously he has great size for the position. He can shoot well. He makes the right plays.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor an 18-year-old to be able to do that is unheard of, so obviously he\u2019s a special player.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if Flagg starts at forward and D\u2019Angelo Russell or Ryan Nembhard starts at point guard? Even though that would mean him coming off the bench, Washington sees playing with the second unit as a win-win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get weaker defenders,\u201d he said with a smile, \u201cso it\u2019s a plus.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Twitter\/X: @townbrad<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/a>Dallas Mavericks exercise team option on Dereck Lively II for 2026-27 season<\/a><\/p>\n

Lively II, a 2023 first-round draft pick, is now under contract through next season.<\/p>\n

\"Dallas<\/a>Cooper Flagg\u2019s been the best player in every gym so far. Why should NBA be any different?<\/a><\/p>\n

The Mavericks rookie is competitive to a fault, and he\u2019s sacrificed personal success for the sake of his teams.<\/p>\n

\"No.<\/a>What we know about some potential landing spots for a new Dallas Mavericks arena<\/a><\/p>\n

The team could be on the move with the expiration of its lease in 2031 at American Airlines Center.<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"P.J. Washington Jr. started in 56 of his 57 appearances last season. During his roughly 1\u00bd seasons as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4643,732,4642,102,104,2582,103,4280,4646,4281,3080,6538,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-13234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-anthony-davis","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-cooper-flagg","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-headlines","13":"tag-dallas-mavericks","14":"tag-dallas-news","15":"tag-jason-kidd","16":"tag-luka-doncic","17":"tag-mavericks","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nico-harrison","20":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13234","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=13234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}