After San Antonio the sexy pick is Houston, what with two big stars, a great off-season addition in Stromile Swift, and the team seemed to come together the second half of last season. That kind of incredible second half — plus getting an outside shooter back in Voshon Lenard — has a lot of people picking Denver as the dark horse in the West.

And everybody is looking right past Dallas. They shouldn’t. Last season’s version of the Mavericks started to make steps away from the “most fun team to watch in the NBA” title that they held during the Lakers three-peat years and toward the kind of team that wins titles.