To no one's surprise, the Golden State Warriors won their third NBA championship in four seasons with a 108-85 series-clinching thrashing of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night. LeBron James did everything in his power to stave off the inevitable - with a busted hand, no less - but the Warriors' assortment of future Hall of Fame talent won out in the end.After game four, Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic bemoaned how the Warriors' dominance over the past two seasons has ruined the NBA. He wasn't alone, either.

Mayberry, a former Oklahoma City Thunder beat writer for The Oklahoman, may be especially frustrated since Kevin Durant's departure from the Thunder helped give rise to this feeling of futility. The Warriors entered the season as commanding favourites to win the title, and they ended it as champions despite experience some turbulence along the way.

But while it's easy to believe the Warriors will dominate the NBA so long as Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green remain in the Bay Area, that type of fatalism will prove far more toxic to the NBA than the Warriors themselves. If the rest of the league pivots toward building rosters meant to peak years down the road as Golden State's Big Four begins to fade, they will create a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The NBA is a zero-sum game, as are sports in general. One team out of 30 will end each season as the champion, leaving the other 29 to reflect on what changes they must make to catch up. The Warriors benefitted from a once-in-a-lifetime set of circumstances - between Curry's ankle injuries causing him to accept a below-market extension to Durant becoming a free agent as the NBA experienced an unprecedented salary-cap jump - but they aren't apologetic about their good fortune.

“It’s not in my job description to please NBA fans. It’s to win, end of story,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers told Ethan Sherwood Strauss of The Athletic  heading into game four. “I don’t need to be entertained, I just need to win. That’s all it is. That’s all I was hired to do. Win. Everyone’s entitled to how that looks to them and feels, but I get to decide how that feels to me.”

Having (at least) four future Hall of Famers on the same roster gives Golden State an undeniably unique advantage, but the NBA's salary cap is unforgiving. As ESPN.com's Bobby Marks noted in December, keeping Curry, Durant, Thompson and Green together will cost Warriors owner Joe Lacob hundreds of millions of dollars over the coming years in luxury-tax payments alone.

Having those four signed to max or near-max deals will also reduce Golden State's ability to round out its bench. Outside of draft picks and the taxpayer's mid-level exception, the Warriors will be limited to signing free agents to minimum salaries from here on out. That won't stop ring-chasers from joining the cause, but it could complicate attempts to sign free-agent difference-makers, as other teams likely will offer far more money.

A thinning reserve unit would leave the Warriors increasingly top-heavy. If one of their Big Four suffered an ill-timed injury - like, say, the MCL sprains Curry suffered in two of the past three seasons or Durant's MCL sprain from the 2016-17 campaign - they could go from commanding favourite to desperate underdog in the blink of an eye.

While rival teams can't bank on injuries undoing Golden State, its ever-present battle with complacency won't get any easier moving forward.

"Every journey is a new one each season," Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters Thursday ahead of game four. "Yet the cumulative effect on multiple journeys adds up, and we have felt that this year. I think it's been our most inconsistent season. It's been our most difficult season."

After the Warriors' victory Friday night, Draymond Green told Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated that this was the Warriors' most difficult title yet, and it "is not even close." When Spears asked him why, Green replied, "It is because of what we had to go through. We went through such much adversity. Mentally. Injuries. Complacency. You name it. We went through it."

Kerr echoed Green's comments during his post-game press conference after game four.

I remember sitting in this room three years ago, it seemed like a dream. This feels more like reality. And I hope that doesn't sound arrogant. It's just that's the talent we have, and that's the experience we've gained.

But it's a very different feeling. It's still euphoric, but three years ago was 'I can't believe this happened,' and now it's 'I can definitely believe this happened, but it was hard, and it gets more and more difficult as you go through.'

There's a reason only three teams since the NBA-ABA merger have won three straight championships: Human nature sets in.

As Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce famously said following his team's victory over the New England Patriots in this year's Super Bowl, "Hungry dogs run faster." Those who have yet to experience the sweet taste of a championship have that extra fuel to motivate them. The Warriors, meanwhile, must seek to recharge their motors and gear up for the grind of another 82-game regular season.

There's also something to be said about the wear-and-tear the Warriors have endured throughout these lengthy playoff runs over the past four years. They've played an NBA-high 83 postseason games - the equivalent of an additional regular season - while exposing their core contributors to upward of 40 minutes per outing. Those extra games could catch up to Golden State eventually, both in terms of physical and mental exhaustion.

Oddsmakers have again tabbed the Warriors as commanding favourites to win the 2018-19 championship, and no amount of offseason player movement is likely to change that. But even if everything breaks right for them - they're able to stay healthy and land an impact player with the taxpayer's mid-level exception - they'll have at least a handful of serious challengers breathing down their necks.

The Houston Rockets will be chief among them.

"I don't understand the teams that aren't obsessed with beating them," Rockets general manager told ESPN's Cassidy Hubbarth following his team's seven-game loss to Golden State in the Western Conference Finals. "To win the championship, you have to beat the Warriors."

Morey has his own set of challenges to navigate this summer, as Chris Paul, Clint Capela (restricted) and Trevor Ariza are all set to become free agents on 1st July. Re-signing all three will send Houston soaring into luxury-tax territory, and that's to say nothing of key reserves such as Luc Mbah a Moute and Gerald Green, both of whom are likewise on the verge of free agency.

However, the Rockets may have grander ambitions this offseason.

Two sources told Rockets Wire's Kelly Iko that the team "will once again be aggressive in free agency" despite its salary-cap limitations, with James and Paul George as targets. Morey would need to earn an Olympic gold medal in salary-cap gymnastics to land either star, but no one should doubt his creativity after the way he acquired CP3 last summer.

The Boston Celtics also loom large as a threat to the Warriors' supremacy. After making it to game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals without Kyrie Irving or Gordon Hayward, they'll have both players in the fold next year to add to their core of Al Horford, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. If they're able to retain Marcus Smart in restricted free agency, the Celtics will be teeming with the type of two-way wings needed to give Golden State trouble.

James can likewise affect the NBA's balance of power this summer if he leaves Cleveland. Whether he winds up joining the Rockets, Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Philadelphia 76ers or another wild card, it's difficult to imagine his supporting cast being worse next year than it was this season. It's fair to wonder when Father Time will begin to catch up to the seemingly ageless 33-year-old, but until that happens, James will give rise to a championship contender regardless of where he lands.

After seeing the Warriors breeze through the past two NBA Finals, it's natural to feel as though their continued dominance is a foregone conclusion. But if NBA history is any indication, dynasties often collapse unexpectedly, far more quickly than anyone would imagine.

In all likelihood, the Warriors will half-ass their way to roughly 60 wins next season before buckling down in the playoffs, just as they did this season. It may feel as though they're predestined to win the title before the season even starts, just as it did this season.

But with the Rockets, Celtics and other championship hopefuls potentially on the rise, competitive balance is not dead in the NBA. Quite the contrary. It's only about to ramp up, starting with what promises to be an explosive offseason.