Jason Kidd is quietly revealing a major change to the Mavericks' rotation

Despite suffering a loss in their second preseason game to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday evening, the Dallas Mavericks will just be thankful they didn't have any more players drop due to injury, as Caleb Martin, Dante Exum, Brandon Williams, and Daniel Gafford have all missed significant stretches of training camp as well as both of Dallas' preseason contests.

However, once most of these players return, Dallas could be poised to have one of the deepest bench rotations in the entire league, especially since newly-extended wing P.J. Washington seems likely to come off the bench once regular-season action kicks off. Through two preseason games, head coach Jason Kidd has given Washington a sixth-man type of role in each of the contests.

While nothing's official till after training camp, it seemed very likely one of Klay Thompson or Washington would need to come off the bench for the Mavericks, and all signs are pointing toward this player being Washington, given these past two preseason games.

It's appearing increasingly likely Kidd brings P.J. Washington off the bench

It was always going to be a far fetch to see if Dallas could get away with the lack of spacing that subbing out Washington for Thompson in the starting unit could provide, as Washington just isn't close to the caliber of movement shooter that Thompson is, and Dallas needs Thompson's shooting gravity more than anything on offense given how big their lineup already is.

However, this isn't to say Dallas won't be featuring Washington in many closing lineups this season or that he won't hold as much importance for the Mavericks if he doesn't start, as Washington has looked more fluid offensively through two preseason contests, and he's poised to be in sixth-man-of-the-year contention if his post-up opportunities and in-between game continue to be sufficient areas of self creation for him this season.

At 27 years old, Washington looks in as good of shape as he ever has in his career, and it's clear he's out to disprove the notion he can't play alongside other bigs and bigger-bodied wings in the same lineup, as this had been critics and skeptic's main reason for wanting to trade Washington for more backcourt help before he signed his extension this past summer.

Washington is a versatile chess piece for Dallas, and while he's 100 percent a starting-caliber wing in this league, Dallas' depth may warrant him having to be a sixth-man, but this likely won't come at the expense of minutes or opportunities, and it wouldn't be surprising if Washington still gets some starting nods against bigger lineups.

Dallas arguably has two starting-caliber players coming off their bench in Washington and Daniel Gafford, so it's clear their double-big style can be duplicative for basically 48 minutes a game when they are fully healthy, which could be a huge advantage if their defense comes around like general manager Nico Harrison thinks it will this season.

All in all, Washington buying into coming off the bench points to his selflessness, and it's great he hasn't made any mess about this situation to the media yet, especially since he's coming off an extension.