Some teams would talk themselves into it; the situation was just too ripe. A blockbuster was coming.
In the summer of 2018, Masai Ujiri kept thinking about the difference between a good team and a great team.
The president of the Toronto Raptors had built good teams; he even won the NBA Executive of the Year Award in his third season as general manager of the Denver Nuggets. He built a bunch of teams with 50 wins. He built teams that won division titles. He built teams that went to the conference finals.
But Ujiri wondered: Had he really ever built a great team in Toronto – a team that could legitimately win everything?
While pondering for days on what could have been the riskiest move of his career, he finally got to grips with the answer and then executed the trade for Kawhi Leonard.
Right now, the NBA has a bloated middle class. There is a large group of teams, maybe a dozen, who are on the brink of the fray. They have a star or two. They have a path to maybe make it to the second round of the playoffs or maybe even the final of the conference, if things are just right. They are good; they are not great.
This is where James Harden comes in, and why his future could shape how this NBA season plays out.