Mavericks' rumored next move triples down on Nico Harrison's risky plan

As the end of August approaches, it's been a relatively quiet month for the Dallas Mavericks thus far, which Mavericks fans will certainly appreciate given how much of a fiasco the last six months have been since the Luka Doncic trade. However, die-hard Mavericks fans have long been awaiting the end of the month, as August 29 is the first day P.J. Washington will be eligible to negotiate a contract extension up to four years and $89 million with the Mavericks.

NBA insider Marc Stein recently reported that it is likely Washington and Dallas will get a deal done (subscription required), and Stein added that while Washington is no longer an automatic starter with Cooper Flagg coming in, his extension will likely come in at a high enough number to where he's ineligible to be traded for six months, unlike recently extended big man Daniel Gafford.

While this deal still has three days till it could be made official, a Washington extension would all but seal Dallas' plans to play double-big, especially if he is the backup small forward behind Cooper Flagg, as that would essentially mean the Mavericks would be playing double-big in nearly all of Anthony Davis' minutes.

P.J. Washington extension would all but seal Mavericks' double-big plan

Once Washington presumably extends, he couldn't be traded this season whatsoever, as six months from August 29 falls weeks after next season's trade deadline, so the Mavericks would be officially committing to this new and huge identity for the entirety of next season, barring they decide to trade Gafford down the line.

While fans and analysts are intrigued as ever to see how this lineup will fare over the course of an entire 82-game season in an era where spacing and shooting have flourished, doubling down on going double-big is undoubtedly a bold gamble by Nico Harrison and Dallas' upper brass. With uncertainties over a lack of guard depth on the roster, many Mavericks fans wanted Dallas to trade one of Gafford or Washington for more guard help this offseason, but the Mavericks clearly want to see how much of a burden their physicality and size can be for opposing teams.

In the 30-35 minutes of Dallas' February 8 win over the Houston Rockets, where Davis infamously got re-injured in the third quarter, it was clear just how tantalizing Dallas' rim protection and ability to score at the rim could be, but that was also with a healthy Kyrie Irving, and many teams in the Western Conference have been gearing up their big man depth to counter Dallas and other team's attack.

The Mavericks are going to need to get a lot of positive shooting variance from their non-bigs if this plan is going to work out in the long run, though, as teams have much more film and data on the Mavericks after they already committed to this strategy toward the end of last season. The Mavericks were obviously going through some serious health woes toward the end of last season as well, but with as deep as other teams are in the West, the Mavericks will likely be hard-pressed to be able to go double-big all the time.

The idealistic scenario for the Mavericks is that they can go double-big for 30-35 minutes every night, without sacrificing too much spacing or shooting, and then they could play Davis at the five in crucial moments such as clutch time. With weak perimeter defense in Dallas' starting five and their wings needing to shoot great from outside for this plan to really be successful, though, this plan will undoubtedly draw skepticism until fans and analysts see it in action.