Josh Howard was the second-best player on a Finals team and one of the great draft-day steals in Mavericks history. Dallas took him with the 29th pick in 2003 after he had swept the ACC Player of the Year award at Wake Forest, and he outplayed that slot almost immediately.

He made the NBA All-Star team in 2007 and averaged nearly 20 points a game in both the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons, but the run people remember is 2006, when he started every game of the playoffs and helped push Dallas to its first NBA Finals appearance. He was a tough, versatile wing who guarded up and down the lineup.

He spent seven seasons in Dallas before stops in Washington, Utah, Minnesota, and Austin, and he later returned to coach at his old high school and work with young players in North Carolina. Mavs fans of that era have a real soft spot for him.