For Jason Kidd, change has been about the only constant in a 15-year, Hall-of-Fame career. Kidd’s excellence at the point is undeniable, but his path to greatness has never been easy or without its hiccups along the way.

During each of his three NBA stops, the Oakland native has injected life into his teams with his unrelenting effort and abilities, but a time would always come for Kidd to move on. It happened in Dallas, it happened in Phoenix, and it’s happening now in New Jersey.

Kidd has the chance to finally win an NBA ring, to do what the Karl Malones, the Patrick Ewings and the Charles Barkleys of the world could not do. But to remove himself from the list, he’ll need to remove himself, whether forcibly or not, from New Jersey.

He’s too valuable and too good to sit and spoil alongside Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson. That experiment failed, and it’s time for both the Nets and Kidd to move on.

Pau Gasol’s addition to the Lakers is a perfect example of what a star player can add to a team with an existing foundation. He has taken over for the injured Andrew Bynum and has given Kobe Bryant the go-to scorer he has been lacking ever since Shaquille O’Neal’s departure.

Gasol to Los Angeles is a risk, no doubt, because Gasol has been riddled with injuries for the majority of his career. Shaq to the Phoenix Suns is a also a huge gamble, because it means trading away an additional one- or two-year playoff window for a title run this year. If teams like Los Angeles and Phoenix are going to this extent to contend, then there should be no reason why a team can’t take a risk on Jason Kidd.

Kidd has reinvigorated every team he has come to, and that fact is undeniable.

During Kidd’s rookie season, Dallas won 36 games, 23 more wins than in the previous season. The Mavericks played under coach Dick Motta, who catered to Kidd’s brilliance in the open court by running an up-tempo brand of basketball.

Kidd, who would share Rookie-of-the-Year honors with Grant Hill, ranked in the NBA’s Top 10 in steals and assists.

But during his third NBA season, under new coach Jim Cleamons, the Mavs began to slump. They started just 8-14, and questions arose over whether Kidd would ever learn to shoot, whether the rift between him and Jim Jackson could ever be fixed, and if Cleamons’ preference for half-court basketball would ever suit Kidd’s game.

Kidd was traded to Phoenix for Sam Cassell, Michael Finley and A.C. Green. He carried that same Suns team, which had started 0-13 to begin the year, to a record of 40-42, good enough to make the playoffs. The Suns would make the playoffs in each of Kidd’s remaining four full seasons. Then, in a trade that turned heads across the league, the Suns sent Kidd to the New Jersey Nets for Stephon Marbury.

Kidd took the Nets, a sputtering franchise, and carried them from an abysmal 26-56 record in 2000-2001, to a 52-30 mark in 2001-2002 and two straight trips to the NBA Finals, resurrecting the careers of Kerry Kittles and Keith Van Horn in the process.

Six years and six playoff teams later, the Nets are mediocre at best. Kidd, who continues to rack up the stats (99 career triple-doubles), accolades (USA Basketball’s 2007 Male Athlete of the Year) and praise from the likes of Bryant and LeBron James, can help a contender get to that next level.

No team could use Kidd more than the Dallas Mavericks, the same team with whom Kidd started his career.

The Mavs could put Kidd alongside more offensive weapons than he’s ever had (Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard, Jason Terry, Jerry Stackhouse). To me, that’s a scary thought.

For the Mavericks, the reality of what might happen if they don’t make this trade could be even scarier.

[Reach columnist Maks Goldenshteyn at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.]