Stop talking about the NBA's ratings. Please

Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes

Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had a fantastic week and are in for an even better weekend.

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing through the last 24 hours about the NBA Cup. Specifically on the subject of who’s — or, I guess, who’s not — watching it.

A report from Nielsen on Thursday revealed that viewership for the league’s new tournament is down by 10 percent year-over-year. Group play in the tournament averaged 1.5 million viewers on TNT for the eight games it hosted and 1.16 million viewers on ESPN for the six games it hosted.

This season group play is averaging 1.33 million viewers on ESPN and TNT, according to the report, which is an ever-so-slight dip in viewership.

Of course, there’s been a bunch of hemming and hawing on social media about whether this means the NBA is dead. People have dropped all these theories about why this slight dip is occurring. Some people think it’s all the 3-pointers. Some people (that I won’t be linking to here) think the league is too “woke,” or whatever. Some are blaming load management.

What I’m here to tell you is this: I could care less about any of this. And you should probably care a lot less, too.

I know, I know. You’re probably thinking, “Sykes, ratings are dropping! That’s not good, buddy!” And I get it. Under certain circumstances, that’d be correct.

But none of this stuff actually matters. Not anymore, anyway.

It’d be one thing if the NBA was in the middle of a difficult broadcast deal negotiation, but the time for ratings conversations has passed, folks. The league signed a $76 billion TV deal incorporating three different networks (technically four with TNT licensing Inside the NBA) and two different streaming services. That deal wouldn’t have happened if the ratings dips were that bad of a sign. But it did. You’ll be watching the NBA on Prime and Peacock next year.

The only reason TV ratings exist is for proof of concept. Networks want to know what people are watching to know what to pour their money into. Advertisers want to know where they should be placing their ads. Despite all the doom and gloom, the NBA’s ratings aren’t bad enough to dissuade either of those entities from working with the league moving forward.

The ratings ignore that the NBA is a huge global product and don’t accurately measure the league’s impact in social spheres. It might not be the biggest hit on TV, but it’s clear that the league certainly doesn’t lack fans when you look at the social numbers. That’s something advertisers and networks are interested in, too.

Ratings are a small piece part of a much larger puzzle. Making doomsday judgments off of them is extremely reductive in 2024. Making them the center of the conversation when it comes to the league is the wrong way to go about it.

So let’s all be better about this moving forward, shall we? No more ratings talk. At least not until it’s time to discuss the next TV deal.

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Bronny understands it now?

Bronny James played his first game on the road with the South Bay Lakers on Thursday and it might have been his best game ever on any level of basketball.

He dropped 30 points on 23 shots while shooting 3-of-9 from 3-point range. He showed his chops as a shot creator that, quite frankly, nobody knew he had.

Bryan Kalbrosky wrote more on Bronny’s performance here:

“Bronny had 14 possessions for South Bay in that game as the pick-and-roll ball handler and 6 more one-on-one against his defender in isolation, via Synergy. For comparison, he had just 19 possessions as the PnR ball handler and 9 in iso during his 25 games at USC.

South Bay put the ball in his hands and he made the most of the opportunity. Is that sustainable? That much is unclear, but any prediction between unlikely and cautiously optimistic is fair.

For his growth potential, however, these reps are invaluable and could go a long way to increase the likelihood of his longevity in the NBA.”

We’ll see how he carries this forward with him. Personally, I’m not sure this is much more than a blip on the radar, considering he’s never done anything like this before. But we’ll see!

Shootaround

— Jimmy Butler is trolling us all with the Phoenix Suns color scheme. I’m convinced. Mary Clarke has more.

—Speaking of the NBA Cup, Bryan has MVP candidates for the tournament here.

— Trae Young rolling dice on the Knicks’ logo is so perfect. Cory Woodroof has more here.

— Here’s Bryan on LeBron’s absence from the Lakers.

That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading. Peace.

-Sykes