Mavericks' P.J. Washington trade turns into landslide as key guard remains jobless

At the 2024 trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks turned their season around after landing P.J. Washington in a trade with the Charlotte Hornets. Grant Williams hadn't panned out like Dallas expected after acquiring him in a sign-and-trade that offseason, so they sent Williams, Seth Curry, and a first-round pick to the Hornets for Washington and two second-round picks.

Washington has been excellent for Dallas on the floor over the last year and a half, and when looking back on the trade, it's clear that the Mavericks got the better end of the deal. Especially since Curry remains unsigned.

When Dallas signed Curry in the summer of 2023, Mavericks fans couldn't wait to see him rejoin the squad, as him coming back to his old stomping grounds was universally coined a great free agency move by Nico Harrison. This would be his third stint in Dallas, but it didn't last long as the Mavericks shipped him to Charlotte to acquire Washington.

Seth Curry remaining unsigned seals Dallas' win in P.J. Washington trade

Now, just under 18 months later, Curry is still a free agent this late into the summer despite shooting a career-high 45.6 percent from downtown. This isn't to say that he deserves to be unsigned, as his 3-point shooting could definitely help a team right now, but the fact that he is still teamless shows that the Mavericks got off of him at a good time.

Last season in Charlotte, a team that won just 19 games, Curry only played 15.6 minutes per game, and his role was far less than what we've seen in past seasons. The only other time that Curry had played under 16 minutes per game in the last nine years was his stint in Dallas before they traded him for Washington, as he was only playing 12.7 minutes per game at that point.

On top of Curry's career going downhill after he left Dallas, Williams tore his ACL after being traded by the Mavericks, and he only played in 16 games for the Hornets last season. Even though the Mavericks owe the Hornets their 2027 first-round pick, Washington has been a major upgrade over Williams, and Curry seems to have just been a throw-in, as he couldn't even manage to be a key piece of a struggling Charlotte team's rotation.

Even though Nico Harrison has made some shaky moves in the past, such as trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis and swapping Quentin Grimes for Caleb Martin, almost every other move he has made has benefited the Mavericks in the long run. He is never afraid to move on from players who aren't meeting the expected standard, as both Williams and Curry struggled in Dallas during the beginning of the 2023-24 season, which led to them both being moved at the trade deadline.

Without trading Williams and Curry for Washington, the Mavericks likely wouldn't have made the NBA Finals, as he was the heart and soul of the team for the final stretch of the season. Washington and Daniel Gafford truly gave the team a boost they wouldn't have had if they hadn't made those massive trade deadline moves, and now, seeing Curry still unsigned, it shows how much the Mavericks truly fleeced the Hornets.