The Warriors’ success could break them up. Sort of. Maybe.

The better the Golden State Warriors are this season, the more likely they’ll fall apart later on. That may seem counterintuitive, but this isn’t a normal team. There’s a real case to be made that an easy ride through the league in 2018-19 could mean the end of these Warriors as we know them.

Of course, it’s all relative. Stephen Curry isn’t going anywhere, and Draymond Green is under contract through 2019-20. A team with Steph Curry and Draymond Green is still incredible; the Warriors could lose their other three all-stars and remain a contender. So long as Curry is around and at the peak of his powers, the Warriors will be good.

Odds are that Klay Thompson will stick around, too. His father told the San Francisco Chronicle recently he expects Thompson to re-sign next summer and retire a Warrior, eventually. The only theoretical Klay exit that makes any sense is something to do with Warriors ownership crying uncle over the luxury tax. But if the luxury tax becomes too painful to keep Thompson, that means that either Kevin Durant or DeMarcus Cousins — or both — are sticking around. Losing Thompson but keeping Durant with Curry and Green wouldn’t be a death blow to the Warriors. Curry and Durant might be the best NBA duo ever.

But when considering the fates of Durant and Cousins, the cost of Golden State’s success in 2018-19 shows itself. Winning too easily may actually make it harder to keep both.

We have no idea whether Durant will decide to move on from the Warriors in the 2019 offseason. There are hardly even flimsy rumors to that effect. It’s all conjecture.

But then again, it was all conjecture in 2016 when we wondered whether he’d really leave the Thunder. He did. As such, it seems fair to wonder whether he’ll leave the Warriors under different circumstances for the same reason.

That reason: legacy. Durant left the Thunder for the Warriors to win championships and grow his legacy as a player. Mission accomplished on the former, especially if Golden State wins another title (as they are heavily favored to do) in 2018-19. The circumstances are different: in OKC, he couldn’t get over the hump, and in Golden State, he and the Warriors have almost made it look easy.

But as I wrote on Friday, the path to getting Durant to leave the competitive comforts of Golden State is to convince him his legacy will suffer for staying. He’ll have his rings (as many as LeBron, even!) and at least two Finals MVPs. He is no longer at risk of going down as the greatest player to never win a title. With that done, he can work on his broader reputation and ensure he is remembered not for his 2016 decision to join a superpower, but for his excellence as a basketball player.

Here’s the rub: getting Durant to that place requires the Warriors showing little weakness this season. It has to be easy for this issue to really resonate inside of Durant’s brain. If it’s hard, if the Warriors come close to losing or (gasp) actually lose, then the question becomes moot.

The clearest path to Durant leaving the Warriors requires the Warriors to win another title easily.

Put another way, should the Warriors win easily, that could help push Durant out.

All indications suggest that Cousins’ stay in Oakland will be short-lived.

Given that the Warriors’ success to this point (three titles in four years, one of the greatest runs ever) hasn’t needed any bit of Cousins, his contribution this season should not be integral. He isn’t even expected to debut for months because of his injury rehab. He has zero minutes of playoff experience, which will make his first appearance in the first round really ... odd.

The bottom line: if he shows he can play like an NBA all-star despite the injury, some team not named the Warriors will give him a max contract in July, 2019. If for some reason it all goes wrong and he can’t play or can’t play well, or the Warriors fall just short, perhaps there’s an absolute longshot chance that Cousins and Golden State team up for a second season to make it right.

But if things go right? Boogie will be getting paid, and not by the Warriors.

It’s all quite clear: success will lead to Cousins’ exit.

Again, this isn’t a huge deal: Cousins hasn’t been around for the successes to this point. But as so many fans and analysts fret about what Golden State hegemony hath wrought, keep in mind that ultimate victory for the Warriors means a Boogie exit ... possibly to a top rival like the Lakers.

(Keep in mind that LeBron James has long been vocal in admiration for Cousins’ game, and keep in mind that the Lakers will have cap space galore in 2019.)

No one suggests that the franchise owners of the Warriors will break up the team due to luxury tax concerns. But their resolve not to do so will be tested in 2019.

Why? Because the Warriors will face the repeater tax for the first time ever in 2019-20. The repeater tax, as I recently explained, makes it much, much more costly for franchises to exceed the luxury tax threshold year after year.

Keeping the core four plus Andre Iguodala and enough players to fill out the roster could cost the Warriors more than $100 million just in luxury tax. That number could be even higher if Durant and Thompson don’t take steep discounts. (Durant has shown a willingness to take discounts in Golden State, for the record.)

We don’t have strong evidence that the Warriors’ wealthy partners will wince at a huge payroll, and the team will be opening up the Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019-20. But you can’t know how the franchise will react until we get there. Other franchises have absorbed massive tax bills for a year or two; no one has tangled with the repeater tax over multiple years before rosters broke up for one reason or another.

The cost of keeping four all-stars at market-rate contracts may be too steep when the Warriors could probably win titles with just three of them.

Of course, that’s only sound logic if the Warriors actually win it all again this season. Again, their success could ease into their partial dissolution.

This is natural in the NBA — the six-time champion Chicago Bulls broke up, after all, and for no particularly good reason. Nothing gold can stay, not even Golden State.

But we don’t know whether the end is near or far. Ironically, it could be nearer if the Warriors win a third straight championship in 2018.