If there were any doubt before, the Summer of 2019 made it crystal clear: star players, no matter the economic system NBA owners try to impose upon them, run the sport more than ever. You can do it obviously, like Kyrie Irving, or completely under the radar, like Kawhi Leonard. You can kvetch about it like, Kevin Durant, or you can embrace the madness, like Jimmy Butler. But stars dictate where they’re going to play, and with whom. And apparatuses, up to and including the supermax contract, can’t stop them.



Therefore, the windows in which teams can legitimately contend for championships is smaller than ever. There are no more five-year plans.



“Two years,” a veteran NBA executive said in July, during the Summer League in Las Vegas. Twenty-four months to win, after which, no matter how long it took you to plan and execute your vision and construct your dream team, you’ll almost certainly have to start over.



It doesn’t matter...