How were the 2011 NBA Champions Built?

With the 2011 NBA draft just a couple of days ago, I thought it would be a good idea to see how the Dallas Mavericks acquired all their players on their championship team. Surprisingly not many of the players were drafted by Mavericks; they did a lot through trades, and they were money on all of the trades.

Dirk Nowitzki- In the 1998 draft the Mavs took Robert Traylor with the sixth overall pick. The Mavs then traded Traylor to the Milwaukee Bucks for Nowitzki, who the Bucks took with the 9th pick in the draft. Wow what a steal for the Mavs; if this trade wasn’t made there is no title for the Mavs; Nowitzki has been a top 5 player in the NBA for a while.

Jason Kidd- The Mavs drafted Kidd in 1994, but he only played 3 seasons in Dallas. Finally after 12 years Kidd returned to Dallas by the way of a trade. The Mavs traded Devin Harris, Desaguana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager, Keith Van Horn, and two first round picks to the New Jersey Nets for Jason Kidd, Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright. Give me Kidd any day over Harris.

Jason Terry- Steve Nash left Dallas in 2004 causing the Mavs to need a scoring guard or point guard. So the Mavs traded Antoine Walker and Tony Delk to the Atlanta Hawks and got in return Jason Terry, Alan Henderson and a future 1st round pick. What were the Hawks thinking?

Tyson Chandler- Once again the Mavs did another trade. They traded Eduardo Najera, Matt Carroll, and Erick Dampier to the Charlotte Bobcats for Chandler and Alexis Ajinca. Another great trade because Chandler gave the Mavs that extra toughness.

Shawn Marion- Marion headed to Dallas by the way of a four team traded involving the Raptors, Magic, and Grizzlies. This deal was so confusing; I won’t get into all the players and cash involved. Just know that Marion was traded from the Raptors to the Mavericks.

J.J. Barea- The Mavs signed Barea as a undrafted rookie in 2006. The Mavs took and chance on him and he developed into a pretty good NBA player.

Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, DeShawn Stevenson- The Mavericks sent Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton and Quinton Ross to the Washington Wizards for Butler, Stevenson, and Haywood.

Brian Cardinal- Cardinal was signed as a free agent by the Mavs in Septmeber of 2010.

Peja Stojakovic- The Toronto Raptors waived Stojakovic in January, so the Mavs signed him.

Iam Mahimi- The Mavs signed Mahimi in July of 2010.

Corey Brewer,Rodrique Beaubois,Dominique Jones- who cares they didn’t play much if at all.

Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry