The NBA trade deadline is only a few days away and one seven player deal involving some big names has already been made as the controversial NBA owner Mark Cuban of the Dallas Mavericks has decided that his team needed an upgrade in order to be able to compete with the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference.

Coming into All-Star weekend, the Dallas Mavericks had lost five out of the last seven games including losses to Western Conference heavyweights like the Phoenix Suns, Portland Trailblazers, Utah Jazz and Denver Nuggets. These losses prompted Mark Cuban to make a deal involving forward Josh Howard as the key bargaining chip for the Mavs.

Initially, the Dallas Mavericks looked like they were going to make a deal with the Sacramento Kings for scoring machine Kevin Martin, but a deal never really got close to getting made, but the Washington Wizards were set on cleaning house in order to start the rebuilding process.

As a result, the Washington Wizards agreed to send forward Caron Butler, guard DeShawn Stevenson and center Brendan Haywood to the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for forwards Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, Quintin Ross and James Singleton.

Before this deal got done, the Washington Wizards had been talking to quite few teams in an effort to move Butler and Haywood, but the most notable team they were talking to before the Dallas Mavericks was the Houston Rockets.

For quite some time now, the Houston Rockets have been trying to trade Tracy McGrady and his $22.5 million expiring contract, but have been able to find any takers. At one point it seemed like a deal could get done and McGrady would be on his way to the nation’s capital, but the Mavs deal was more appealing to the Wizards and therefore they decided to go ahead and take Howard and Gooden instead of another injury prone superstar like Tracy McGrady.

Personally, I believe this deal makes the Dallas Mavericks a legitimate title contender in the Western Conference as they will now be able to compete with the likes of the Denver Nuggets and the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.

The Mavs now have the talent with one of the best starting rosters in the NBA, but it will be interesting to see how they get Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood into the mix. Hopefully they will be able to get some team chemistry going sooner rather than later.