It is the new norm in the NBA. The teams that can lure in 3-4 stars or 2 really solid stars and a few fringe, will be the powerhouses. Everyone else will be the also-rans. GS set the standard, not just from a team perspective, but from the players' perspective. They see that, hey, take a few mill less (what is 5 million when you are signing a deal for 100 mill. most will take 90 instead to guarantee the ring), and make the path to the ring that much easier. All-star teams against what would amount to practice teams will always win, and the players know it, and the teams know it.
My fear is it will escalate and possibly break the league. Money is so big now that it isn't a factor anymore. In the past, the idea of you making 8 mill per year or 18 or 20 mill as the sole big dog helped drive some level of parity as it spread out the talent. But now the 2nd tier guys are looking at 22 mill to be the man, or 18 mill to guarantee the ring. Extrapolate that over 5 seasons and what difference does it really make? They can spend their younger years at the 18 mill, get 3 rings playing in the desirable places (California, East coast, no one wants to play in the middle states, let alone places like Utah), then sign a max with a team desperate to maybe break into the top tier (say, Utah), and still get their money while being the star. Win-win for the players, lose-lose for the league as a whole and most of the teams.
If we ended up with 3 powerhouses in the west and 3 in the east, and the rest fighting at just around .500, with a few tanking to try to add the next star that will help their team rise through the ranks to maybe bring in the big boys, well the league will be unwatchable then. What fun will it be to know that the best you can hope for with your team is a string of moral victories and maybe reaching the 2nd round of the playoffs until the 2 teams that went 64 wins+ from the conference inevitably duke it out in the CF to see who gets to get their ring this year?
TL;DR - eventually we could see places like LA, GS, Miami, NY, Boston just become ring mills, while the rest are there to maybe sell some merchandise and make sure the TV revenue keeps the ring mills running.
