Mavericks Mistake? Rookie Projected To Push P.J. Washington to Bench

DALLAS - In many ways, P.J. Washington had a 2025-26 season to forget.

Ankle injuries limited him to 56 games, his 3-point percentage cratered to 32.5% after he shot 38.1% the year before, and the version of him that helped the Dallas Mavs reach the 2024 Finals rarely showed up.

Then came a summer of trade speculation, with the Lakers and others floated as suitors while the Mavericks reshaped nearly everything around him.

He is still here, and he says he expects to stay. But a new projection suggests his role may look different than it has.

Mavs.com's Eddie Sefko published his look at the Mavericks roster and depth chart this week, and one call stands out. He has rookie Morez Johnson Jr. opening the season as the starting power forward, with Washington coming off the bench.

Sefko's reasoning centers on Johnson's background and where the organization sees him going.

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"The rookie from Michigan comes to the Mavericks as the No. 9 overall pick in the June draft," Sefko wrote. "He knows how to win, having teamed with May and two other first-round picks to lead the Wolverines to the NCAA championship in April. Johnson will have growing pains. But leadership fully believes he will be a mainstay for the Mavericks for many years to come."

The Washington portion is where it gets eyebrow-raising.

"Here's where things get interesting. Is there a Maverick world where neither Washington nor Marshall are in the starting lineup on a regular basis? Hard to envision," Sefko wrote. "But as many executives have told us in the past, this is an upgrade business. And when your starters become elite backups, that's an upgrade. The move of Klay Thompson to the bench last season was a success. The record didn't show it, but it cleared the way for Christie to become who he is. And as we've also heard many times, it's not as important who starts the game as who finishes them."

That final point is fair and worth remembering. Closing lineups matter more than opening ones, and a deep rotation means somebody accomplished is always coming off the bench.

But there is a real case against this particular arrangement, and it has nothing to do with Johnson's talent.

Dallas needs Washington on the floor as a point-of-attack defender. That is arguably his most valuable trait, and it is one this roster cannot easily replace. Washington can guard multiple positions, switch onto smaller players and take difficult assignments that would otherwise fall to Cooper Flagg. With Kyrie Irving turning 35 in March and returning from a torn ACL, and with a thin guard rotation behind him, the Mavericks are going to need every capable perimeter defender they have.

Asking a rookie big to handle those assignments from the jump is a different proposition. Johnson brings physicality and rebounding, and his familiarity with May's system is a genuine advantage that should shorten his learning curve. Playing for a coach who already knows exactly how to use you is not a small thing.

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The growing pains Sefko acknowledged are also real, though. Johnson is 20 and jumping from college to the NBA, where the athletes are bigger and the schemes are more complex. Handing him a starting job on opening night puts him in matchups against established veterans before he has faced them.

There is also the question of what it does to the second unit. Washington and Naji Marshall coming off the bench would give Dallas one of the more formidable reserve forward tandems in the league, which is the upgrade argument Sefko laid out. That is legitimate. It also means the starting five loses two of its most reliable defenders.

The likeliest outcome is that this sorts itself out over the first month. May will experiment through training camp and the preseason, and the lineup that emerges by November may look nothing like the one that takes the floor in Houston on Oct. 21.