Jason Kidd, who helped turn the Nets from a perennial doormat into an N.B.A. finals team, is on the verge of being traded to the Dallas Mavericks, according to a league executive briefed on the deal said.

The Mavericks will obtain Kidd in a package built around the young point guard Devin Harris and the veterans Jerry Stackhouse, Devean George and DeSagana Diop, said a Western Conference executive who learned of the deal through the agents for two of the players involved.

According to ESPN.com, which first reported the deal, the Nets will also acquire two first-round picks (in 2008 and 2010), guard Maurice Ager and $3 million in cash from the Mavericks. The Web site also reported that the Mavericks, in a separate deal, would receive Antoine Wright from the Nets for a second-round pick.

The splashy move by Dallas continues a virtual arms race among Western Conference powers, which began when the Los Angeles Lakers obtained power forward Pau Gasol from Memphis on Feb. 1. Five days later, the Phoenix Suns acquired Shaquille O’Neal from the Miami Heat.

It took the Mavericks, who have long flirted with the idea of trading for Kidd, seven days to respond in kind. Kidd, who turns 35 next month, is one of the elite point guards of his era and one of the best defenders at his position. He joins a Mavericks team that won the Western Conference title in 2006 and won 67 games last season before flaming out in the first round of the playoffs.

Kidd is known for his steadiness and his mental toughness, qualities that have been seen as lacking in the Mavericks. Kidd, who began his career in Dallas in 1994, will team with Dirk Nowitzki, one of the most gifted power forwards in the league.

The trade potentially signals the start of a rebuilding phase for the Nets, who have been built around Kidd for nearly seven years. The Nets acquired Kidd from the Suns in 2001 and won the next two Eastern Conference championships. They lost to the Lakers and the San Antonio Spurs in the finals and have yet to repeat that level of success.

The Nets tried to trade Kidd and Vince Carter a year ago. Those efforts failed, however, and the Nets decided last summer to keep their core of Kidd, Carter and Richard Jefferson intact. They resigned Carter to a four-year deal worth about $60 million. Carter’s and Jefferson’s names have been mentioned frequently in trade talk this season.

Rod Thorn, the Nets’ president, could not be reached for comment.

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