Mavericks' brutal tanking mistake just cost them more than anyone realizes

P.J. Washington woke up last Monday morning, and couldn’t feel his left arm.

Dallas had just secured their 25th win of the season over a Luka Doncic-less Los Angeles Lakers squad the night before, and it came at the cost of their starting power forward. This is a game that they had no business winning, given that they were already eliminated from playoff contention. The only thing that should've been on the front office's mind was maxing out their lottery odds.

How one win wrecked P.J. Washington's offseason

Washington suffered what the Mavericks ruled as an elbow sprain, and during his exit interview, he told the media that he would be out for the next six weeks. He said that he didn’t know exactly what happened in that game against Los Angeles, but he knew something was wrong the following morning and got an MRI.

Injuries are part of basketball and can happen at any time, but Washington was playing in a game that had no impact on their season. He has been in and out of the lineup over the last two seasons due to various ankle injuries, and his offseason just got delayed by at least six weeks.

Dallas had the option to begin shutting down their players far earlier than they did, and their refusal to do so cost them an ankle injury to Cooper Flagg in the season finale against the Chicago Bulls and an elbow injury to Washington.

Last week, Washington said that one of his biggest offseason goals was to be healthy and available for his teammates next season. He should be back long before the beginning of the 2026-27 season, but his offseason started poorly before it even began — far from ideal.

Dallas tried to tank ethically but it cost them

The Mavericks should’ve started shutting players down long before that game against the Lakers, as they needed to maximize their chances of falling in the lottery standings. With three wins over their final nine games, Dallas is tied with the New Orleans Pelicans for the seventh-best odds. They had the sixth-best odds secured before some of these wins, and these victories cost them some ping pong balls in the lottery, along with Washington and Flagg.

Time will tell if these wins were worth it, as the Mavericks were making a strong push to help Flagg win Rookie of the Year. Their “Ain’t No Pressure” campaign over the final week of the season was remarkable, but their focus should’ve also been on securing the best possible odds to draft Flagg a co-star.

Flagg could've still been just as dominant as he was down the stretch with some of his teammates shut down, as Dallas made the right choice by playing Flagg as much as possible. Experience is invaluable for the star rookie, and him playing so well at the end of the season helped him close the gap in the Rookie of the Year race with Kon Knueppel.

Still, this could’ve been done by sitting Washington far earlier than they did, and they got burned for playing with fire.