[L'ennemi.]

What I meant is that those teams are now stuck with salary cap problems struggle to pull the moves necessary to put them over the hump and win a championship. They're even getting worse sometimes(see suns willing to trade marion, detroit letting Wallace go).
And I don't feel they 've been contending for as long as you think: The suns really have been credible for one year( probably two if stoudemire had not been injured), and their windon is closing fast.
The pistons are not credible contender since they've lost Wallace.
And the Maverick have been conteding every year because they were willing to overplay for players and accept big contracts that put them way over the luxury tax.