That is true. I was meant to refrain using the word contention and use the word competitive all the way through like I did at the start.You summed it up well! I would make a small edit to "brink of contention" and change to "develop into a competitive playoff team" I think the "brink of contention" comes after the big internal leap or we get the big fish. Great post.
We cannot build up and hone the edges before we know what kind of extra blocks we need, can we?