2 Trades from an opposing GM that turned the Mavericks into a monster

On Saturday night, the Dallas Mavericks finished their thrilling series against the Oklahoma City Thunder with a 117-116 win on their home floor to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

Dallas' series against the Thunder was identical to their series against the LA Clippers when it comes to the order in which they won and lost games, and now the Mavs will have the chance to play the Minnesota Timberwolves and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2011.

This was an intense series from Game 1 until the way until Game 6, and the resiliency of Luka Doncic helped the Mavs grab wins in Games 5 and 6 to ultimately win the series.

2 Trades from an opposing GM that turned the Mavericks into a monster

Doncic had a rough start to the series and was constantly battling injuries, and his back-to-back triple-doubles in Games 5 and 6 were huge. He had to find a way to impact the series more, and that's exactly what he did to help the Mavs close out this series.

Kyrie Irving was also huge for the Mavs in Game 6, as he turned a slow start into a 22-point clutch masterclass. Irving was hitting tough shots down the stretch, and he is now 14-0 in closeout games.

The Thunder were never going to be an easy matchup considering that they were the No. 1 seed, but their inexperience ended up coming back to bite them in the end.

Dallas has now made the Western Conference Finals in two of the last three seasons, and they are four wins away from the NBA Finals.

While everyone is pointing to Doncic and Irving for this series win, Dallas' role players were big in this series as well. Two of Dallas' biggest role players were actually acquired in trades this season, and an opposing GM from a different Western Conference powerhouse helped the Mavs pull off these deals.

Here we dive into two trades an opposing GM made with the Mavericks this season that backfired on them and ultimately helped Dallas turn into a monster in the Western Conference.