Salary cap space and flexibility means different things to different franchises due to rules such as individual max salary. The importance of these disparities come into sharper focus because of the fact very few teams win championships without MVP-caliber talent. Put simply, the ability to sign players outright means more to teams that can reasonably expect those players to come there.

For nearly my entire lifetime, one of these lines of division has been New York and Los Angeles separate from everyone else. The two massive media markets have predictably had the most reliable success bringing in elite players that they did not draft, particularly the Lakers with Shaquille O'Neal in 1996. Incidentally, the Lakers benefitted then from the lack of rules that would have allowed the Magic to retain O’Neal after his rookie deal. When the NBA put caps on how much elite players could make on the court, top media markets actually benefitted immensely because they could argue that they gave guys the best chance to maximize their fame and fortune since the salary would be substantially the same.

However, these dynamics have been subject to substantial changes.

Since buying the Clippers in 1981, Donald Sterling and his management have been the laughing stock of the league until the sudden change in fortune the last few years.

After years of success, the Knicks have also hit hard times, failing to make the conference finals since 2000 and missing the playoffs entirely seven seasons in a row.

For a stretch of years, the Lakers reaped the benefits of being the only team in a major media market team with a positive reputation in terms of ownership and the front office. Starting in 2000, Jerry Buss’ team won the NBA title five times and lost in the NBA Finals twice, making the playoffs in all but one season from then to his passing earlier this year. Since Jerry Buss gave up day-to-day control of the team, the highly regarded top of the pyramid for the Lakers has taken some serious hits and actually failed to retain a major free agent when Dwight Howard left for Houston.

In my eyes, Kobe Bryant’s extension only exacerbates this since the Lakers effectively took themselves out of true championship contention for at least the next two seasons unless they somehow pull LeBron James. While the Clippers have certainly raised their stature, Donald Sterling still looms large over the organization and we have to see whether he will be willing to pay the luxury tax to keep their current team together for a few more seasons.

The other major change comes in the form of Mikhail Prokhorov and the Brooklyn Nets. For the first time since the 1980’s, a new team has entered one of these major markets and we still have to see if they have the same cachet with unrestricted free agents that the Knicks and Lakers have had over the years. It will likely take some time because of how many expensive players Brooklyn has on the books. Prokhorov’s willingness to spend to get a competitive team on the floor has certainly raised plenty of eyebrows.

The brave new world we are entering is one where none of the major market teams has the competitive advantage of their location and a top-flight organizational reputation. History and money are still (largely) on their sides but players have become more conscious of organizational quality in recent years, with LeBron James’ decision to go to Miami standing as a particularly interesting example. While having the space to sign the best players outright will continue to be a major component of their strategies, the looming unrestricted free agency of James in 2014 and Kevin Durant in 2016 will serve as major tests for the importance of playing in on the biggest stages. Incidentally, only the Clippers have serious financial commitments for 2016 at the moment so we may get to see what happens when the behemoths battle the hometown team and potentially better situations in terms of teammates in smaller markets. While we are still too far out to even speculate, these power dynamics could end up being a major story in the league during that time.