"The Washington Wizards started their much-anticipated roster makeover on Saturday, trading Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood and DeShawn Stevenson to the Dallas Mavericks for Josh Howard, Drew Gooden and two other players.

The seven-player deal provides financial flexibility and substantially changes the look of the Wizards (17-33), who have foundered this season despite expectations that they would become a contender in the Eastern Conference.

"We haven't achieved the things that we were hoping to," President Ernie Grunfeld said when reached by telephone. "We just felt like we need some change and we needed some freshness. Maybe this group together has gotten a little bit stale. Maybe we needed to go in another direction at this time."

A person with knowledge of team's thinking said on Saturday there could be more changes before the Thursday trade deadline. "