Teams like Denver should form draft/trade alliances against the big market Super Teams.  It matters not if you win 43 games or 23, as you have no chance of even being in your conference final (never mind actually competing for the championship) - thus you should trade ALL your good players to one of the other teams in your alliance in exchange for their draft picks (and any duplicate skill players on their roster).  Every three or four years you take your own turn with having the good players.  You'd probably need at least three teams to make it work, but that's about the right cycle time anyway.