Even with the Warriors poised to appear in their fifth straight finals, something we haven’t seen since the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics made 10 finals appearances in a row from 1957 to 1966, there is no escaping the Transaction Game thanks to Golden State’s Kevin Durant and Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard.

Not only do they unanimously rank as two of the five best players in the world, but Durant and Leonard also are just a month away from becoming basketball’s two most coveted free agents when the marketplace opens.

You come to understand very quickly covering #thisleague, as I frequently refer to it on Twitter, that there is no avoiding discussion about the future in the modern N.B.A., even when we’re in the midst of what is supposed to be the pinnacle present.

I have a three-pronged theory to explain how it got this way over the past decade:

1) In a climate where every game is broadcast worldwide, with highlight plays circulated almost instantly via Instagram and Twitter, fans today see everything. Or almost everything. And that has made them thirst even more for updates on what they can’t see, such as moves their favorite teams may be plotting.

2) As Warriors coach Steve Kerr noted in February, many of the game’s biggest names feel as if “we’re all actors in a soap opera.” The N.B.A. has embraced social media’s ability to take us deeper into players’ lives, for better or worse, more than any other major sports league can. The result: Fans are now more invested in these “characters” and their backstories, travails and occasional feuds and flare-ups than they were at any point in my 26 seasons covering the league.