Dusty May has already identified the limit of his first NBA training camp: Dallas can rehearse an offense and defense all it wants, but neither is fully tested until another team starts looking for the weak seam.
That admission is more valuable than a premature starting lineup. May is using Thursday’s fifth practice to keep decisions open, and P.J. Washington and Morez Johnson Jr. show why that is sensible for the Mavericks, whose next step is supposed to be more than arranging talented players into attractive theoretical combinations.
Washington supplies the clearest case study for Dallas. May sees him as a possible starter who could also play small-ball center, shift to small forward in a larger lineup or function as a point forward. That is a substantial menu of responsibilities. It also means every choice changes the job description for the four players beside him.
Washington’s Dallas history makes the starting option reasonable. Since joining the Mavericks in February 2024, he has been in the opening group for 137 of 142 regular-season appearances. That is roughly 96.5%, a strong indication that coaches have trusted his overall value. It is not a guarantee that the same deployment best fits this season’s roster or every opponent.
The shooting question keeps the evaluation honest. Washington scored 14.2 points per game last season and contributed averages of 1.8 assists and 7.0 rebounds, but his three-point accuracy fell to 32.5% after reaching 38.1% in 2024-25. A 5.6-percentage-point drop is too large to wave away as decorative arithmetic.
At the same time, one season does not establish a permanent new baseline, particularly when the player is still working on pull-ups and repeatable mechanics in camp.
That work matters because Washington’s positional flexibility depends partly on offensive credibility. At center, he could give Dallas a quicker configuration; at forward, he could help preserve size; in a point-forward role, his passing and rapid decisions might become more central. But each version asks a different question of the shooting around him.
If defenders can sag, the passing lane becomes less useful. If they must close out, Washington’s versatility has more room to matter. Practice can rehearse those options.
It cannot force an opponent to choose one answer.
The availability question is just as important. Washington has missed 51 games across the past two seasons. That does not invalidate the idea of using him in several roles, but it makes a rigid plan less prudent. Dallas needs variations that are functional, rather than one polished arrangement that depends on every piece appearing every night.
