NBA notes: Bobcats send Tyson Chandler to Dallas in 5-player deal

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Bobcats completed a wild 24 hours of trade discussions with a deal on Tuesday that does include center Tyson Chandler after all.

He's just not heading to the team he thought a day earlier.

After a potential trade with Toronto fell apart, the Bobcats sent Chandler and fellow center Alexis Ajinca to the Dallas Mavericks for center Erick Dampier, forward Eduardo Najera, shooting guard Matt Carroll and cash considerations.

While the Bobcats get financial flexibility with Dampier's non-guaranteed $13 million contract, the injury-plagued Chandler is off to this third team in a year after being acquired from New Orleans last summer.

"We could not be more excited to add Tyson Chandler," said Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson. "He is one of the most versatile big men in the league today. He gives our front line a defensive, shot-blocking, athletic punch we haven't had here in a while."

Bobcats general manager Rod Higgins said the Bobcats will either waive Dampier or make another trade with him. That would allow the Bobcats to clear about $7 million in salary-cap space if they dump Chandler's $12.7 million contract and Ajinca's $1.5 million deal and take in Carroll ($4.3 million) and Najera ($2.8 million).

Before the trade, the Bobcats were only about $3 million shy of the reaching the luxury tax threshold, a payroll figure owner Michael Jordan said they wouldn't exceed.

"You have to consider that contract is probably one of the most valuable contracts in the league," Higgins said. "The flexibility is the beautiful part of having Erick's deal, maybe not so much for Erick himself as a player, but for the franchise itself."

Carroll is a jump-shooter Charlotte traded to Dallas just 19 months ago, one of eight deals involving 26 players the Bobcats have made since Larry Brown took over as coach at the start of the 2008-09 season. Najera will add depth to Charlotte's front court.

It's a far different outcome for Charlotte than what was being discussed a day earlier.

The Bobcats had been closing in on a deal that would have sent Chandler and Boris Diaw to Toronto for Jose Calderon and Reggie Evans. Calderon would have provided Charlotte with a needed replacement for point guard Raymond Felton, who signed with New York on Monday.