The National Basketball Association employs a trading system similar to other professional sports, where teams can swap players for a combination of other players, draft picks, or salary. Trades can generally occur at any point in the NBA off-season or during the regular season prior to the trade deadline.www.nba.com/news In the NBA, the trade deadline generally occurs in the middle of February shortly after the NBA All-Star Game. http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/john_schuhmann/02/10/deadline.faq/index.html

During the off-season, teams often perform what is known as a "sign-and-trade" in order to sign a player as a free agent in order to promptly trade them to another team. Due to NBA salary rules (which state that unrestricted free agents can receive the greatest salary offer from their previously employerhttp://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/john_schuhmann/02/10/deadline.faq/index.html), it often benefits both the player and the team to sign a player for a larger salary before getting sent to another team -- this way all parties involved get something in return.

The NBA also stipulates that if both teams are over the salary cap, the salaries of the two players involved in the trade must be within either 125% of each other.http://www.nba.com/2010/news/features/john_schuhmann/02/10/deadline.faq/index.html Cash considerations can often be sent in order to even up salaries.

Following the massive trade that sent Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood to the team, the Dallas Mavericks have not been the target of any trade rumors. There is speculation that the team will at least place a call to upcoming free agent Chris Bosh (who is from Dallas), but due to salary-cap restrictions a sign-and-trade appears to be the only way the Mavs could lure any top free agent to the team this summer.http://www.espn.com

On February 14, 2010, the Mavericks acquired Caron Butler, DeShawn Stevenson, and Brendan Haywood in a trade that sent out Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, Quinton Ross, and James Singleton to the Washington Wizards. The team avoided trading rookie Rodrigue Beaubois in the deal, giving them a young presence at point guard.

• February 14, 2010: Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, James Singleton, and Quinton Ross to the Washington Wizards for Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson
  

• February 19, 2008: Devin Harris, Maurice Ager, Trenton Hassell, and Devean George to the New Jersey Nets for [[Jason Kidd], Malik Allen, and Antoine Wright
  

• August 4, 2004: Antoine Walker and Tony Delk to the Atlanta Hawks for Jason Terry.
  

• Draft Day 1998: the rights to Robert Traylor and Pat Garrity to the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to Dirk Nowitzki. Garrity was then traded to the Phoenix Suns in a deal that brought Steve Nash to Dallas.http://www.espn.com