Those smart owners should try to imitate the success of most of the good teams in the league and build their roster through the draft and only rely on needing one or two FA signings or trades to complete it. Warriors, Bucks, Grizzlies, Celtics, 76ers, Nuggets, Pelicans, Kings all drafted major pieces and added a few role players in the open market. The only teams competing right now that were mostly built outside the draft are Brooklyn and Cleveland. The model of relying on an active trade market has only ever worked for teams like the Lakers and the Heat and supermaxes are finally killing that model and allowing small-mid market teams to retain their talent, this is a universally awesome thing.

And yes, there are 8-9 teams that could make the finals, and that counts as contentending. No, there aren't 8-9 teams that would be favored in a specific finals matchup, but competing in a finals is the definition of contending.