When the Dallas Mavericks elected to break up their team following the 2011 championship run, it was largely because of a big plan to retool and bring in younger superstars to carry the load as Dirk Nowitzki aged. Those plans never materialized and after a slow decent, Dallas briefly bottomed out before drafting bedrock piece in Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson in 2018.
In those years following 2011, the Mavericks went over the salary cap, but never approached the luxury tax line imposed on teams following the ratification of the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2011.