It was relatively quiet in Dallas the past three summers. There were no pushes for overpaid, big-name malcontents, no trigger-happy moves. The Mavericks’ owner, fiery billionaire Mark Cuban, stopped acting like a fiery billionaire and instead made prudent basketball decisions. He declined to overpay for point guard Steve Nash and refused to make wild bids for center Shaquille O’Neal or guard Allen Iverson. Cuban seemed to take pleasure in finding bargains such as DeSagana Diop, Devean George and Greg Buckner.

This summer? “I don’t think Mark is going to be content,” says one league executive. “He could blow it up. They’ve got to do something now.”

After the team’s shocking first-round loss to Golden State, that’s a refrain Cuban can expect to hear frequently from Mavs fans. In fact, as the Mavs’ biggest fan, Cuban most likely is making that do-something-now demand of himself. So, what’s he – and Dallas fans like him – saying? And what should be his response? A look at some alternatives:

¢ Trade Dirk. In the moments after the Mavericks were eliminated in the first round, Dirk Nowitzki summed up the team’s biggest problem: “It would have helped if we had a low-post presence.” Uh, that’s your job, Dirk. But no matter how much Nowitzki has moved off the three-point line, no matter how focused he is on playing inside, that’s not his game. As long as teams get away with playing small forwards on Nowitzki, the Mavericks will have trouble in the playoffs. Trading Nowitzki won’t solve the Mavs’ problems. It would leave too big an offensive void. Rather, they need a better low-post scorer next to him. The ideal is Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal, who will be on the trading block. Sounds good, but here’s the tough part: Dallas may need to include All-Star small forward Josh Howard in any such deal.

¢ Fire Avery. Come on. Johnson was out-coached by the Warriors’ Don Nelson, but he did a terrific job in last year’s postseason and is 143-39 in two-plus regular seasons. Nineteen teams lost more than 39 games this season.

¢ Trade Jet. If the Mavericks can find a way to move guard Jason Terry, they should. The problem is, Terry signed a six-year, $57 million contract last summer, and teams won’t be stumbling all over themselves to take on that payroll hit.

Terry is a terrific streak shooter. He is not a playmaker and doesn’t do much to get Nowitzki the ball. Dallas needs a point guard who can be Dirk’s setup man.

¢ Sign somebody. The Mavericks should do what it takes to bring back free-agent swingman Jerry Stackhouse, one of the best sixth men in the league. Beyond that, a pass-first point guard should be the focus, but the team is over the cap and will have limited money available to sign someone. A veteran such as Brevin Knight would be a good fit.