seems like the wrong forum, but that aside. Skill > gear, obviously. I asume he has close to 0 arena points, full furious. So i would take about 2 months to get full wrathfull. If he can get his hands on 264 item lvl Tier pieces, to get the 2 part set bonus, then that'd be great.

If they're similar Skilled i'd try with the less geared pally. I wouldn't worry to much about cataclysm really. Just have fun now, you could always go with the other pally then, unless they really want a 5vs5 team. but i guess that's personal.

also, if the geared paladin has 1 evening in the week he can dedicate to arena with you, then that should be plenty. I only play on tuesdays, because the teams seems to be less focussed / good.