When the Dallas Mavericks begin the post-All Star break, which should be a crazy two months for all the Western Conference playoff hopefuls, they will get a reminder of what they did near the trade deadline a year ago.

Yes, New Jersey and All-Star guard Devin Harris will be at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night.

And that reminder should be enough to compel owner Mark Cuban and team president Donnie Nelson to do it again.

Make a deal. Almost any deal.

The Mavericks, who are going to have to hope that Jason Terry is right when he says he can return from that broken hand injury in less than three weeks, need to be active before Friday's trade deadline.

The Jason Kidd for Devin Harris and draft picks trade that so many of you hate and that I have long defended is not going badly. Not when the Mavericks are 31-21.

It doesn't matter that Harris was in the All-Star Game and Kidd wasn't. Harris is an All-Star because he plays for a lousy sub-.500 New Jersey team that can't generate any offense if he and Vince Carter aren't jacking up shots at alarming rates.

Regardless, arguing whether or not they should have done the Kidd deal needs to stop. They did it, so now the Mavericks have to figure what to do next.

And the reality is that they aren't in a bad spot in the West despite a cruel defeat against Boston on Thursday night.

Had Dallas not blown that 15-point third-quarter lead, the Mavericks would have not only gained the confidence that a victory over the world champions should produce. They would be tied with Portland for fourth in the West instead of seventh.

That's why these last two months are going to be nuts. The fourth team in the West, a spot that represents a coveted first-round home advantage situation, is 3› games ahead of the ninth-place Phoenix Suns.

With Portland, Houston, New Orleans, Dallas, Utah and Phoenix lodged into those four through nine slots, there will be movement on a nightly basis.

The good news for the Mavericks is that at least two of those teams — Phoenix and New Orleans — have enough financial concerns that they are considering moving big contracts.

The most interesting storylines, of course, belong to the Suns. They could trade Amare Stoudemire. They could trade Shaquille O'Neal.

The team has stumbled enough that it will be a surprise if the Suns don't do one or the other by Friday.

My preference would be to see Shaq stuffed into a Mavs uniform. For one, he would cost any team that gets him considerably less in player value than Stoudemire.

And if you think Kidd's arrival energized the building for a few weeks, or at least until we figured out that Avery Johnson had no idea what to do with him, imagine what Shaq's arrival would do for Dallas.

The fact that they almost certainly still would not have enough to beat the Lakers in the playoffs is irrelevant.

You can't base every decision solely on whether or not it gets you a title. Not in the NBA. You have to just try to improve.

In the NBA, seven franchises have won championships in the last 25 years. That's the end of the list.

But if a trade for Shaq or even a considerably smaller player in size and skill makes the Mavericks better and increases their chances of doing something in the playoffs they haven't managed in either of the last two seasons, then do it.

You try to make your team a first-round playoff winner, then go from there. Who knows what can happen? It may take an injury to Kobe Bryant to keep the Lakers from getting to the NBA Finals, but you never know.

So if it's Minnesota guard Mike Miller or Golden State's Stephen Jackson or even an offensive player of lesser quality, then the Mavericks need to make that move.

The team as currently constructed could win a playoff series. This team with an extra offensive weapon added to it would stand a chance to win a second-round series, too.

Even if that was destined to be followed by a loss to the Lakers, at least credibility and some spring entertainment value that's been missing the last two years would have been restored.