The Dallas Mavericks will hold training camp in Las Vegas beginning on Tuesday. The Mavs recently announced the training camp roster and a number of players are set to return. In fact, the Mavericks are returning 13 players from last season. One of those players is AJ Lawson.

Lawson is a 24-year-old guard who earned a new NBA contract last season. The Mavs seemingly believe in his ceiling. He ended up playing on the NBA Summer League team. Lawson averaged just over 18 points per outing in Summer League, displaying signs of his potential.

The Mavs already have players set to receive regular season minutes, though. Lawson is at the point of his career where he would benefit from regular playing time. The Mavs also re-signed Markieff Morris, so it will be interesting to see who earns the final regular season roster spot.

With training camp right around the corner, Lawson will need to play well as the Mavs prepare for the 2024-25 campaign.

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Dallas Mavericks guard A.J. Lawson (9) walks on the court before the game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center.
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Lawson is 6'6″ and offers potential as a scorer. He appeared in 42 games during the 2023-24 season, but averaged just 7.4 minutes per outing. Even if Lawson spends the entire 2024-25 season in Dallas, there is no guarantee that he is going to receive regular minutes.

Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving lead the Mavs guards. Spencer Dinwiddie, Quentin Grimes, Dante Exum and Naji Marshall can all play as guards as well. Klay Thompson will play on the wing, as he will technically be the small forward. However, Thompson can certainly be utilized as a shooting guard as well.

Thompson and PJ Washington will likely both play on the wings while Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford lead the center position.

So that leaves little room for Lawson to see action. Having depth is never a bad thing, of course. Injuries do unfortunately happen and having a player like Lawson waiting on the bench can prove to be crucial. However, there are other players, such as Markieff Morris, who the Mavs would seemingly like to keep on the regular season roster.

Lawson isn't on a two-way contract any longer, so the Mavericks will be forced to make a difficult decision if they opt to not include him on the 15-man roster once the season begins. With that being said, Lawson can make that decision especially difficult with a strong training camp and preseason.