Los Angeles Lakers: Best trade in team history with the Dallas Mavericks

The Los Angeles Lakers and Dallas Mavericks have had some uneventful trades.

As part of an ongoing series here at Lake Show Life, we are diving into the best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have made with every other NBA franchise in the league. Today, it is the Dallas Mavericks‘ turn.

The Lakers and Mavericks have been trade partners only four times. The last time the two teams did business was in June of 2012, with the first time being in September of 1999. The Mavericks were founded in 1980.

The trades between the two teams have been rather uneventful, with neither team really having a single trade that immensely benefitted them. From the Lakers’ viewpoint, the best trade with the Mavericks is rather forgettable.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ best ever trade with the Dallas Mavericks:

The best trade that the Los Angeles Lakers have ever pulled off with the Dallas Mavericks includes a player that was a staple for the Showtime Lakers that was in the late stages of his career. The Lakers were not getting the best version of A.C. Green, not even close, but they were getting some value in this trade.

Green first started his career with the Lakers all the way back in 1985 and was part of three championship teams with the Lakers, two during Showtime. While he was often the fourth, even fifth, best starter for the Lakers in their best seasons, he was always a solid role player for the team that was marked by his two best traits: defense and durability.

Green is one of the most durable players in league history. In his first Laker stint, that spanned eight seasons, Green missed a total of three games. That occurred in his second season and was the only season of his entire career where he missed a single game.

The Lakers got that same durability out of Green for the 1999-00 season, even if he was not the same role player talent-wise that he was a decade earlier. The 36-year old power forward only averaged 5.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game, but he started all 82 games for the Lakers as well as all 23 playoff games.

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He was an important veteran presence on the first three-peat season for the Kobe-Shaq Lakers. Would the team have won the NBA Championship with someone else at the four? Probably, but the durability and experience of Green was still hugely important to this team.

Despite Green being well past his prime when this trade went down, this easily is the best trade that the team has ever made with the Mavericks.

The three other players that the Lakers acquired in the three other trades have a combined four games played in the purple and gold.