The small markets are still at a disadvantage
If there was any growing belief that small markets weren’t at a disadvantage in the NBA anymore, that completely got thrown out the window by a few events that transpired during the 2022 NBA offseason. And the perfect example of just this is the Utah Jazz.
In 2017, the Jazz lost star player Gordon Hayward to the Boston Celtics (big market) during free agency. Just five years later, they’re about to lose two more star players. You can make a case that the duo of Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell had flamed out but they’re still in the midst of their prime years. You don’t just trade star players in their prime.
Nevertheless, Gobert was traded to Minnesota (another small market, but had to drastically overpay) and Mitchell appears to be heading to New York (big market). Small markets either have to pay a premium to keep or acquire star players or they will lose them to bigger markets. We were reminded of that once again this offseason.