Look for the Mavs to make a push for disgruntled New Jersey Nets star Jason Kidd. While the Nets seem to be in a cost-cutting mode, moving Kidd's $90 million contract over the next 5 years would be optimal to the Mavs who can give up recently acquired Calvin Booth (three years remaining, $19 million), Jerry Stackhouse (three years, $22.5 million), Tariq Abdul-Wahad (three years, $22 million), Tony Delk (two years, $6.5 million) and Christian Laettner (one year, $6.2 million).

Mavs president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson seems pretty interested in the idea as well, as the Mavs have gone after Shaq earlier and remain in the Vince Carter rumors.

"All the major names bandied about have some interest," Nelson said. "We have an interest in getting better defensively, making significant upgrades to our roster and giving our young group enough to make a run in the playoffs."

Nelson also adds that players acquired in trades this summer, such as Stackhouse, Laettner and Booth, plus some already on the roster help make blockbuster deals possible.

"These base hits put you in position to hit a grand slam," Nelson said. "There's no such thing as a grand slam until the bases are loaded. If you do the right thing consistently with smaller moves, it makes it easier to do bigger moves.

"Smaller moves also protect against something unforeseen happening, like Nash leaving. If we didn't trade [Antawn] Jamison, we wouldn't have had Devin Harris."