Sitting at 10-17 and being the 12th seed in the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks are finally looking like a competitive team, though it's hard to make the argument that Dallas could be a contender in this current climate for the next few years. There have been rumors that Kyrie Irving could return now if the playoffs started tomorrow, but the Mavericks can't have a repeat instance of rushing a player back from injury, and should probably shut down Irving for the rest of this season.
The Mavericks won't field a competitive playoff team versus any of the top seeds in the West this year, which is who they'd be playing against if they made the playoffs, in all likelihood.