NBA Rumors: Dallas Mavericks Minor Moves Set Up Magical 2012-13 Season

The defending NBA champions have been sneaking under the radar somehow as they quietly produced a large amount of roster turnover in the past few days.

That’s just fine with the Dallas Mavericks.

They traded for Lamar Odom, signed Vince Carter and Delonte West and traded away Rudy Fernandez. They let Tyson Chandler get overpaid by another team, and seem to have no interest in resigning JJ Barea.

What does it all mean?

In the immediate future, it means that the Mavericks will not win back-to-back championships. Odom for Chandler is a downgrade, and the additions of Carter and West aren’t going to scare anybody. I doubt they even reach the Western Conference Finals.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is that these seemingly minor moves set up Dallas to send Dirk Nowitzki out with a bang.

With Odom’s two years and $17.8M contract the only one of any significance added on, the Mavs are in a terrific position to land either Deron Williams and/or Dwight Howard next summer via free agency.

They can use their amnesty on Brendan Haywood. They received the $11M trade exception for the sign-and-trade with Chandler and will now have roughly $25M to spend next summer. Can they sway both of them?

Dwight Howard did include the Mavericks on his exclusive list of teams he wants to play for. With the way things are panning out right now, he may be stuck in the Sunshine State all year and will be free to pick the team of his choice in July.

Then there’s Williams, who is originally from the city of Dallas. If he watches Howard sign with Mavericks to play alongside Nowitzki…why wouldn’t he want to sign?

Mark Cuban is one of the smartest business men in the world and he’s showing the rest of the league why with the brilliant, yet quiet, moves he's making.