The Dallas Mavericks are as guilty as anyone when it comes to Highway Robbery in the trading realm of professional hoops. Spurs coach Gregg Popovic, who screamed bloody murder when the Lakers and Grizzlies had the Gasol boys switch bedrooms back in 2008, didn't seem to mention anything with his patented brand of rage when the Mavs flexed their wealth muscles and brought in a handful of Wizards, a Raptor, and a Bobcat over the last two years. In hindsight? Never has a team given up so little to receive so much to go on and win an NBA title so quickly, a feat that Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki have been trying to accomplish since Calvin Booth's Infamous Bucket (also known as Michael Finley's Greatest Assist) back in the 2001 NBA Playoffs, when the Little Mavericks beat the Utah Jazz for their first Playoff series victory in their first Playoff appearance in eleven years.
Yes, after eleven years, the Mavs were back, but it would take another long decade for them to win it all. What changed over the last decade for Dallas, full of 50-win seasons and post season heartbreak, to put them over the top for their dominating title run? After a boatload of tinkering, after two weird coaches had to get fired, and another brilliant coach had to be brought in, the real progress began almost exactly 2 years ago, on July 9, 2009, when the Dallas Mavericks found themselves as the main beneficiary of a 4-Team trade.
In that trade with the Raptors, Grizzlies, and Orlando Magic, the Mavs gave up exactly Jerry Stackhouse (his expiring contract being the real apple of Toronto's eye), Devean George, and Antoine Wright (who the Raptors envisioned as their starting shooting guard... yikes). In return the Mavericks received Shawn Marion and Kris Humphries. Kris was already a slightly valuable young player, with real potential and a rock solid attitude. He was arguably the second best player involved in the trade. The Mavs later sent him to New Jersey in a way less dramatic money saving move.
Marion was the real prize of the day though, and although his joining the Mavericks was done through sign-and-trade, meaning he had chosen to sign with them on his own, the deal shines brightly in many ways regarding Dallas, their brains, and their bucks. Toronto let Marion walk in order to give more money to Hedo Turkoglu, a contract that has turned out to be one of the worst in the league (and one of the most traded). Marion meanwhile, came to Dallas in exchange for simple nothings (Devean George being one of the worst Mavericks of all time), and after just two quick years, his role as the Mavericks' best perimeter defender and third scoring option are as responsible for their championship as anything, and his price tag has shown to be extremely reasonable.
With Marion on board, things were looking improved. But the Maverick roster still had the same glaring problems; at small forward and at center the Mavericks were playing a gimpy Josh Howard and an always pathetic Erick Dampier. If the Mavs wanted a ring, the squad still needed improvement. So Donnie Nelson and crew went back to work, and oops, they did it again. This time with the blow-it-up Washington Wizards, the Mavericks pillaged the Wiz for nearly half their rotation, receiving Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson. In their dusty tracks, the ultra-wealthy Dallas team had left the scraps of Josh Howard, his upcoming torn ACL, and Drew "Baby Don't Tug On My Rat Tail" Gooden. Oh... and the Mavs somehow also received cash considerations and somehow didn't have to touch the ticking time-bomb of Gilbert Arenas's contract... Wow.
The strangest thing about this deal is that none of the three Wizard players' contracts were epically long or painful. Haywood's was actually expiring after that season, and Caron's and Stevenson's after the following. The Wizards simply gave up, and the Mavericks were happy to be there to take full advantage. Butler might have been hurt for the title run, but his solid play leading up to his injury was crucial for Dallas' success up to mid-season. Stevenson ended up as the most dominant 3-point shooter in the Finals, and, when he wants to be, Haywood's probably the best backup center in the league.
The final lopsided trade piece of the championship puzzle, the trade with Charlotte for Tyson Chandler, turned out to be the luckiest of the three swaps. With the first two trades, Mavs fans showed high excitement for what they meant to the team's chances. The trades had people feeling extremely good for the sake of Maverick contention. But when the NBA hit the free agent bonanza in the summer of 2010, after a post season in which Dallas saw themselves lose in the first round for the third time in four years, Mavs fans wanted the team to step it up, and many figured the only way to do so was to sign LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Joe Johnson, Dwyane Wade, or somehow convince Conference rivals Denver or New Orleans to trade us their best players in Carmelo Anthony or Chris Paul. The trade bait? One expiring contract of Erick Dampier, a unique trade chip that allowed another team to erase substantial payroll. It was a tool the super-rich Mavs had designed themselves, purely to take advantage of those with financial woes, or to compensate those with escaping free agent superstars. Mavs fans wanted to pull a Pau Gasol trade of their own, only instead of the promising young Marc Gasol, a player who has quickly evolved into an all-star caliber center whom that Lake Show had surrendered to obtain Pau, the Mavs fans wanted to give up Erick Dampier, a player everyone hated because he stinks. And although the fans' attitude might have matched Dampier's abilities, the Mavericks ended up pulling a trade that did just what they had hoped, only nobody at the time thought it as such.
Many considered the Chandler trade a waste, seeing Tyson as an injury prone shadow of his former self. Some considered Dampier for Tyson a wash, more of the same. Oh how little did they understand, how Tyson Chandler, a player who was unsuccessfully traded twice before the Mavericks finally somehow cracked the code (first he flunked his physical on a trade to OKC, then the Bobcats backed out at the midnight hour in a potential Chandler trade with Toronto), would become the second most important player on the 2011 Championship Dallas Maverick roster. And the most ruthless thing is, the trade's lopsided results don't stop there! Also unloaded by Dallas in the trade was Matt Carroll, who the Bobcats will have sitting on their bench for the next two seasons for $7,400,000. For Maverick fans, it's been pure magic as we watched this freshly acquired talent destroy all in their way to win the Larry O'Brien Trophy. You have to love the NBA, where the rich get richer, and the poor beg for a drastic cut in payroll and a hard salary cap to level the playing field. Good luck with that one, silly poor teams. And good luck to Gregg Popovic, the angriest man in sports.
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