The Dallas Mavericks are closing in on a contract extension with one of their most versatile players.
The Mavericks and P.J. Washington are finalizing a four-year, $89 million deal that will keep him under contract with Dallas through the 2029-30 season, a league source confirmed to The Athletic.
Washington will earn $14.1 million this upcoming season. His extension will kick in for the 2026-27 campaign.
Washington is coming off a strong 2024-25 season where he averaged 14.7 points (shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point land) and a career-best 7.8 rebounds per game. He battled right ankle issues, which limited him to 57 games. The Mavericks used him at both forward spots, and he also played center when the team’s injury crisis was at its worst in February and March.
Washington — who grew up in Frisco, a suburb 30 miles north of Dallas — spent the first 4 1/2 seasons of his career with the Charlotte Hornets. In February 2024, the Mavericks acquired him in a trade for Grant Williams, Seth Curry and a 2027 first-round pick.
Washington played a pivotal role in Dallas catching fire in the final weeks of the 2023-24 season and advancing to the NBA Finals for the third time in franchise history. He averaged 17.7 points and 8.3 rebounds in Dallas’ second-round playoff series win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2024.
That was part of Dallas’ larger pattern of success against Oklahoma City with Washington in the lineup. This past season, the Mavericks went 3-0 against the Thunder when Washington played.
The Mavericks have extended the contracts of both players they acquired ahead of the 2024 trade deadline. In June, the Mavericks and Daniel Gafford agreed to tack on three years and $54 million to the center’s deal.
In May, the Mavericks hit on a 1.8 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery. With the first pick, they chose Cooper Flagg, a 6-foot-8 forward who, like Washington, can play either forward spot.
It’s unclear how Flagg and Washington will be able to coexist. But in June, Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison expressed optimism that they could make it work.
“He (Flagg) did a workout while he was here,” Harrison said. “P.J. was there. I said, ‘P.J., think you guys can play together?’ He said, ‘Oh yeah, we can play together.’ I don’t see any jealousy.”
Harrison has known Washington since he was in middle school. Harrison traded for Washington in February 2024 on the belief that he wasn’t showing his full skill set in Charlotte.
Washington has become a valuable player for Dallas because of his ability to do so many different things well. He can handle the ball, score inside, hit spot-up 3s and take on difficult defensive assignments.
“He kind of blends whatever lineup he’s in together very well,” guard Spencer Dinwiddie, a former Maverick who signed with the Hornets in July, said last season.
(Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
