Since acquiring Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood from the Washington Wizards at the trade deadline, the Dallas Mavericks have established themselves as the team to beat out west not named the Lakers. Since the trade, the Mavericks are 8-1, including wins @Orlando, @Atlanta, vs. the Lakers, and @Charlotte, all very good wins. So much for a post-trade adjustment period. In what was once a muddled battle between teams 2 through 8 in the West for the conference’s 2nd best team, a clear favorite has emerged. The Dallas Mavericks are now in 2nd place in the standings and the new team to challenge the Lakers for Western Conference supremacy.

The Mavericks have been one of the West’s most consistent teams for years, making the playoffs for 9 straight years including a birth in the 2006 Finals against Miami (in which they lost). However, Dallas has not been considered as serious threats to reach the finals since that year. The Mavs have just 1 playoff series win in the past 3 years. It has felt like the Mavericks were always one player short, or not built for the playoffs given their preference for outscoring opponents rather than playing sound defense.

Owner Mark Cuban and General Manager Donnie Nelson have appeared to finally figure out what they were missing, and acquired the perfect blend of personnel on the roster. Trading budding star Devin Harris for veteran Jason Kidd seemed like a questionable move 2 years ago, but it has worked out wonderfully, as Kidd is the perfect orchestrator for this offense and does not command shots. Acquiring Shawn Marion last offseason was a solid move, adding another veteran star to the team who could understand his role and want nothing more than to help a team win a championship. Marion is a very athletic hustle guy, solid defender, and good rebounder.

The final piece to the puzzle was the perfect move at this trade deadline, acquiring Caron Butler and center Brendan Haywood from the Wizards for Josh Howard and Drew Gooden. Howard and Gooden were examples of players the Mavericks used to covet, skilled offensive guys who commanded shots but played very shaky defense. In steps the veteran Butler, who is great defensively but also can score effectively and find his role on a winning team. And finally, Haywood comes in as a tremendous defensive center, prolific rebounder and shot blocker who does not need to shoot often but finds easy points around the basket. There wasn’t a more perfect combination of guys the Mavs could have gotten in a trade in which they gave up very little.

The Mavericks are now built around their franchise player Dirk Nowitzki, while being surrounded by talented veteran role players in the starting lineup (Kidd, Butler, Marion, Haywood). Add 6th man of the year candidate and prolific scorer Jason Terry to the mix, along with other very solid bench contributors J.J. Barea and Erick Dampier, and this finally looks like a team built for the postseason. Veterans with a desire for a title that get after it defensively, yet know how to play the patented up-tempo Dallas style and can fill up the scoreboard in a hurry.

WHO ELSE ARE THEY COMPETING WITH? - The Lakers are the clear favorites in the West. They are 5 games ahead of the competition and defending NBA Champions. This blog is looking for #2, so we leave the Lakers out of this discussion.

The Denver Nuggets seemed like the clear #2 for much of this season, but they can’t seem to get it together. They are a confident, talented bunch that thinks they can beat L.A., but a lot of other teams think they can beat Denver. They have lost 2 straight and are a bit inconsistent right now, not clicking in the way Dallas has been.

The Utah Jazz have been hot lately, but their only real shot of taking teams down in the playoffs would be home court advantage. They are a tremendous home team and always have been. They are clearly trying to gain home court for a 2nd round series, but they’re probably not going to finish in the top 2.

The Portland Blazers are young, hungry, and competitive, and just added a veteran defensive center at the trade deadline, which they badly needed. Marcus Camby is a great addition for them. However, they just don’t have enough to make a run this year. They might be a sleeper team to win in the first round, but that’s as far as they’re getting.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are this season’s feel-good story that has emerged as a top team in the league. However, the Thunder are still a year away. This year has been phenomenal and the league is well aware that Kevin Durant is one of the world’s 5 best players and this team is going places. Unfortunately, they’re still too young and inexperienced to be expected to win in the playoffs this quickly.

The Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs round out the rest of the contenders, but I don’t believe they are even in the same topic of discussion as the teams I’ve listed above them. Phoenix is looking for one more good year with this core group of guys, but they’re not title contenders. The Spurs have never gotten into a rhythm this year, look a lot older than in years’ past, and scare nobody. They have time to get everyone healthy and clicking on all cylinders, but there’s no reason to believe this will happen this season based on what we’ve seen up to this point.

I’ll take the Dallas Mavericks over all of these teams. The question from here going forward will be whether or not the Mavericks have a legitimate shot to take down L.A. in the playoffs. We saw them beat the Lakers just last week, but that’s the last time the two teams will play in the regular season. I have a feeling we will be seeing them meet again a bit later on in the year, when it really matters.