An astonishing nine teams in the Western Conference awoke Friday on a 50-win pace.

Eight of those teams made a notable alteration to the roster before Thursday's trade buzzer sounded.

You see where this is headed. Right?

So many good teams made major midseason changes -- more teams than ever before that already were considered title contenders -- that we were inevitably moved to pick out five and determine who traded best.

The five trades in the West that will make the greatest impact:

1. Pau Gasol to the Lakers

Did someone say impact?

Getting Gasol merely influenced the thinking of every team around the Lakers in the West, immediately vaulted L.A. into the league's top tier of teams and, most of all, lifted Kobe Bryant to new levels of intensity while giving him no reason to even think about forcing his exit any time soon. No matter what happens this season.

When you remember that the deal with Memphis, as we keep saying, also cost the Lakers none of Phil Jackson's 10 favorite players, you inevitably wonder: Can a trade get any better?

The new Lakers have quickly convinced lots of smart folks in this league that they can win the championship on their first attempt, even with Andrew Bynum still out indefinitely and Kobe allegedly vulnerable with a pinkie injury that didn't seem to be troubling him too much in Phoenix on Wednesday night. If it doesn't happen right away? Bryant doesn't turn 30 until August; Bynum doesn't turn 21 until October and Gasol is just 27.

Either way, I already find myself backing off my Power Rankings premise that the Lakers have too much going on healthwise and newnesswise to get out of the West this June, especially after a serious scolding Friday from a trusted Western Conference scout who said: "They've replaced Smush Parker with Derek Fisher at the point, which is a huge upgrade, and nobody's talking about Lamar Odom. If Lamar is the third-best player on your team, you're really good. And he might be the Lakers' fourth-best player."

2. Shaquille O'Neal to the Suns

This was the boldest of the 14 trades we've seen since Opening Night and honestly one of the gutsiest ever. So it doesn't feel quite right to put it this low.

We ultimately decided that the Great Gasol Robbery must be in a category unto itself because there's absolutely no downside for the Lakers -- and when does that ever happen in trades? -- but the O'Neal deal is bound to have a Shaq-sized impact because of the Shaq-sized extremes involved.

"It has the most potential upside and creates the most uncertainty," said one rival GM. "We just don't know for sure until we see."

Yet as someone who has observed the Suns from a fairly close vantage point the past few years, what I'm quite sure I do know is that Steve Nash has been re-energized by the possibilities, knowing that he (a) no longer has to expend energy policing the locker-room whims and whines of Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion because Marion is gone and Shaq is Amare's new mentor; (b) no longer has to drag his body through a pick-and-roll on every grinding possession in the postseason because the Suns have a legit low-post diversion to let Nash have some possessions off and keep some gas in the tank; and (c) no longer has to hear or fear how soft the Suns are or that the point guard is their toughest guy.

O'Neal has to prove he can stay healthy, true, but his mere presence makes the Suns tougher than ever if he does. The part that makes people skeptical is that O'Neal's arrival  even if it halts the years of abuse they've absorbed in the low post -- makes them far more vulnerable defensively on the pick-and-roll, which was already troublesome for the Suns and which generally ranks as the first priority for any team's D.

If Shaq's presence really does cut down on the second-chance points Phoenix habitually concedes and he keeps providing the expected boost in the locker room and in the half court offensively when the game slows down in the playoffs, you're going to hear lots of those doomsday opinions retracted.

But if a defense that was already somewhat suspect just went down a notch because of the pick-and-roll vulnerabilities that will come with playing Nash, Shaq and Amare together … tick, tick, tick.

3. Kyle Korver to the Jazz

This deal happened in December and it happened in Utah, making it doubly likely to be overlooked amid all the February Madness. But that doesn't mean it wasn't brilliant.

The Jazz won the Korver Sweepstakes, such as they were, because they were the only suitors willing to package a first-round pick with an expiring contract. In return, Utah got its best 2-guard since Jeff Hornacek.

"For years, they've been trying to find a 2 who can fit," one West scout said. "Korver fits everything they do, won't say a word and is much more athletic than people give him credit for."

Throw in Utah's 19-3 record since Korver got there and that sounds like an impact player to us … although we concede that he's not going to make Utah's suspect defense any stingier.

4. Jason Kidd to the Mavericks

Of all the contending teams out there that took the rare step of making a big move largely to replenish their spirit and the fans' passion -- such as Phoenix and Cleveland -- Dallas needed its big splash more than anyone else.

They never wanted to admit it, naturally, but these Mavs likewise were never going to recover emotionally from their playoff humiliations against Miami and Golden State without a drastic change. Gasol, though, was never made available to Dallas. And Shaq is at the stage in his career when he needs to feed off a guy such as Nash as opposed to carrying a stale, wounded franchise. Having longed for a return to Dallas for months, Kidd was the best-fitting sidekick for Dirk Nowitzki, who has endured without a real point guard -- and without complaint -- for more than three years but could no longer wait for the help.

You wouldn't have been able to convince me otherwise even had Dallas lost by 40 to Chris Paul's Hornets in Kidd's debut, mainly because it wasn't long ago that Paul shredded Devin Harris just as easily. You likewise can't convince me that the Mavs have given up too much when Harris clearly needed a change of scenery to reach his full potential and when they've instantly made Nowitzki's life easier and happier … on the floor, in the locker room and late in playoff games when he gets swarmed more and more tightly every year.

Yet even I -- after lobbying in print for this trade almost from the minute Dallas was ousted by Golden State in May -- have to admit that I'd rank it higher if I knew for sure that Kidd and Nowitzki will get the offensive free rein that Mavs coach Avery Johnson has given no one in Big D previously, Nowitzki included. Johnson himself acknowledged the issue earlier this week when he cracked, "I was wondering how long it was going to take you guys to ask that."

The Mavs will find another big man to fill the DeSagana Diop void; Jamaal Magloire is the clear front-runner for the rest of the season. Attracting vets from here to fill in the Mavs' cracks is unlikely to be any kind of issue with a setup man extraordinaire like Kidd back in town.

Yet if there's skepticism around the league about this move, it's starts with Johnson's willingness to cede decision-making responsibilities to any QB, even one as accomplished as Kidd, and whether Kidd can indeed "impose his style on us," as Nowitzki describes it.

"All of our butts are always on the line," Johnson said Friday on his weekly ESPN Radio show in Dallas. "Me first."

5. Kurt Thomas (and Damon Stoudamire) to the Spurs

Facts is facts: San Antonio badly wanted Mike Miller before the trade deadline and couldn't get him.

But it's also true that lots of teams wanted Miller and no one could get him away from the Grizz. Furthermore …

As an accomplished post defender who also can routinely drain elbow jumpers, Thomas is far more than a consolation prize. That's especially true if the Spurs can bring back Brent Barry by beating out Phoenix, Golden State, Houston, Dallas and everyone else hoping to sign Barry now after Seattle promptly waived him.

I suppose you can argue that this is the season San Antonio needed more than Thomas or an insurance-policy signing such as Stoudamire. Rest assured that the Spurs know they need an infusion of youth and athleticism sooner rather than later.

But what they really wanted at the deadline is the knowledge that sustained health is forthcoming forTim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, which might be enough to clinch the Spurs' first repeat title if it finally happens over the next few months. With the most accomplished core trio in the game -- which is saying something just looking at the various threesomes and foursomes in the West now -- San Antonio has earned the right to believe that this might be a good postseason to rely on its been-there, done-that, seen-it-all continuity, as long as it's coupled with good health.

Missed the cut

New Orleans' acquisition of Bonzi Wells has promise because Hornets coach Byron Scott has been openly complaining about his lack of bench options and because the Hornets are so thin behind the starting frontcourt duo of Tyson Chandler and David West. Yet even if Wells is an effective big forward in the playoffs for New Orleans, as he has been for other clubs, swapping Bobby Jackson for Mike James isn't likely to change much. The Hornets, as a result, aren't sufficiently deeper to crack our top five.

The Rockets, meanwhile, were motivated more by finances than by on-court concerns in making this swap, having found a greater comfort level off the bench with youngsters such as Aaron Brooks and Carl Landry. So they weren't even a consideration here. Nor were the other two teams in the West's ridiculously tight top nine, one of which did make a recent addition (Golden State and the inconsequential-so-far signing of Chris Webber) and another (Denver) that surrendered 135 points to the offensive lightweights from Chicago in its first game after coach George Karl felt it wiser to pass on a trade for Ron Artest.

Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here.

Dimes Past: Feb. 9-10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 22

Have you looked at the Western Conference standings lately?

As of Friday morning, nine teams were winning at least 61 percent of their games. NINE!

Common sense says this can't last, obviously, because West teams will be increasingly playing each other (and beating each other up) in the final third of the season as they complete the Leastern Conference portions of their schedules. Yet it's still amazing to see nine teams keep it up for this long … with No. 9 Golden State playing .688 ball since its 0-6 start.

The previous record for 50-win teams for one conference is seven, as witnessed in the 2000-01 season. On seven previous occasions, we've seen six 50-win teams from one conference in a single season. For the record: It's been the West on all but one of those occasions and all seven such seasons have occurred since 1990, just in case you still believe that the West's top-to-bottom excellence is in any way new or some sort of media myth.

P.S. -- Since the league expanded its playoff format to include 16 teams, Houston's 45-37 record in 2000-01 accounts for the highest winning percentage (.549) for a team that failed to make the playoffs. In 1971-72, when the league had only 17 teams and sent just eight to the playoffs, Phoenix missed out with a mark of 49-33, good for a .598 winning percentage.

You don't think we're done with L'Affaire Devean George, do you?

It's just the opposite: Now that the Jason Kidd deal has gone through and the trade deadline has passed, we finally have some time to dig into it.

Have to say, for starters, that I remain stunned how calmly Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has responded to George blocking the initial Kidd trade by citing a little-known league rule that prevents certain players with one-year contracts from being traded without their permission … and the $11-million-plus extra this season alone that it's going to cost Cuban to complete the follow-up deal that the Mavs and Nets hammered out. Cuban continues to reserve any venom for George's agent, Mark Bartelstein, and even that has been fairly restrained venom by Cuban standards.

However …

More than a week later, I still have yet to encounter a single agent or executive from another team who sees George and/or Bartelstein getting anything out of those Bird rights they preserved except for a seriously strained relationship with Dallas and Jersey.

One Western Conference exec I spoke to went as far as to call those rights "worthless" without the Mavericks' cooperation.

It's common for people to think of Bird rights as something owned by the player. They are actually a right conveyed to the team, which allows that team to spend more to re-sign the player. But after George's role in endangering the Kidd deal, how likely is it that Dallas will re-sign him at a higher number or use him in a sign-and-trade to help George land a bigger deal with another team?

Right. Not likely.

So George can salvage those Bird rights one of only two ways. He'll have to play very well for the rest of the season and somehow convince the Mavs that he's indispensable, which seems unlikely given his limited role until now. Or he'll have to be thrown into a sign-and-trade deal this summer, unless he plans not to go elsewhere in free agency and instead wait at home for the Mavs to sign-and-trade him into a future deal a la Keith Van Horn.

Oh, yeah: Had George agreed to the original New Jersey deal, he'd have received a trade kicker worth nearly $140,000 for his trouble. Adding to the intrigue here, George never would have had the right to block his inclusion in the deal without the Mavs' help.

George originally signed a two-year deal with Dallas in the summer of 2006. After one season, George and Bartelstein told the Mavs they'd like to opt out and test the free-agent market but re-sign for one year if the market proved unfriendly. Cuban agreed and ultimately brought George back this season at $2.4 million. But because the original two-year deal turned into two one-year deals, Dallas unwittingly created George's veto power.

With Sacramento releasing Justin Williams in the wake of the Mike Bibby trade, we were down to 16 other players in the league this season (see Box 8) who also had the power of George before Thursday's trading deadline.

That many, yes.

To get into that select club, which pretty much no one brought up until George blocked the first Kidd deal, you had to be a player with a one-year contract who also ended last season with the same team, thus making such players eligible for Early Bird or full Larry Bird free-agent rights at the end of the contract. Because those Bird rights are lost in a trade, NBA salary-cap rules dictate that such players cannot be dealt without their consent.

One follow-up financial footnote to Sacramento's deal: NBA front-office sources say Bibby had a 5 percent trade kicker in his contract that will earn him close to an extra million bucks for moving from Sacramento to Atlanta: $967,206 over the next two seasons, to be exact.

Mavericks guard Jason Kidd, well aware of what the skeptics are saying about his trade back to Dallas and a conference filled with elite point guards.